The Akademi Murders
by limaandshovel
Summary: Toru Akiyama's career in law enforcement looked promising, plenty of cases, quick promotions, but everything went wrong in late 2016 with a string of murders in Akademi High. Now an anonymous informant says they've got the reasons why, but what do I, a respectable Supreme Court judge, care? Well, it turns out it was more than just a misbehavior what ruined the man's career.
1. Prologue

**_Warning:_** This story is rated M for a reason, throughout the course of the story you will find **_somewhat detailed descriptions of corpses_** , along with **_coarse language and sexual references (Maybe content in the future as well)._** Proceed with discretion.

* * *

 ** _The Aishi trial_**

* * *

 **Building of the Supreme Court of Japan, Tokyo; Monday, October 16** **th** **of 1989**

Oh, the final day of the Aishi trial. It was supposed to be the big day for the prosecution, they had done everything in their power to pull it off; they presented all the evidence the journalist had handed over to the Buraza Police to both the judge and the jury, plus all the DNA and fingerprint tests, unfortunately; all star witnesses excepting the journalist suddenly 'disappeared' prior to the testimony hearing and all the evidence was refuted by Ryoba Aishi's lawyer, which he claimed to be 'planted' 'forged' and whatnot, all complimented by Aishi's 'Crying and innocent girl' act. Everyone on the prosecution thought (And they weren't wrong) that this was udder and blatant lies, a strategy designed to try and get on both the judge and the jury's sensitive side, but the prosecution was optimistic, if this didn't get Ryoba Aishi the death row, or by the very least life behind bars, all hope was lost on Japan's legal system, and a murdering maniac would be left to roam the streets scot-free for their despicable actions, something that nobody in the prosecution bench wanted to happen.

After several hours of deliberation, the jury finally decided to step out of their hiding, orderly taking back their seats on the jury bench. The head of the jury holds a paper with their verdict and remains stood, looking at the judge, said judge proceeds to do his job.

"Miss Tsuno, how does the jury find the accused; Ryoba Aishi?" The judge, stern and commanding as always, asked

"Your honor, after hours of evidence and statement reviewing. This jury hereby finds the accused; Ryoba Aishi… Innocent of ten charges of murder in first degree"

That was… Definitely anticlimactic, that was without a doubt a verdict the prosecution didn't expect to hear.

"WHAT?!" A resounding male voice pleaded from the prosecution bench

"Ahem, if you could allow me to resume… Thank you; this jury hereby finds the accused innocent of all charges. We think that the evidence presented; as overwhelming as it may be, it is not sufficient to justify the incarceration of the accused. Not to mention that the one providing all of the evidence is no-one less than the only witness who could testify on court in this trial. The jury thinks; in a ratio of two-to-one, that the evidence presented could have been forged in a convincing way to incriminate the accused, and that this could be a possible personal vendetta or a cover-up for their own crimes coming from the only witness in this trial, but we cannot back this claim as of now and we just think of it as a theory" The head of the jury elaborated

"Thank you Miss Tsuno... Well, using the verdict of the jury and my own personal expertise; this court hereby declares the accused; Ryoba Aishi, acquitted of all charges. Case dismissed" The grand judge said before dropping his hammer and declaring the case as over-and-done-with

Of course, the prosecution didn't take this kindly, with most members of it clutching their heads and going limp against the table in frustration, except for one prosecutor, whose hands are balled into fists and whose left eyebrow is twitching madly. The prosecutor decides to stand up and face the judge, once the prosecutor is at talking distance, the judge addresses him.

"Ah, prosecutor Akiyama! I can see that you are not satisfied with the verdict" The judge said in a fake friendly tone whilst taking a break of filing papers

"You have any idea of what you have done?!" The prosecutor; whose surname has been revealed as Akiyama, said angrily

"Yes, I have let an innocent schoolgirl return to her normal life after the Buraza Police kept her in a jail cell for three months"

"NO! YOU GOT IT ALL WRONG! RYOBA AISHI IS A DERANGED, MURDEROUS PSYCHOPATH! THAT'S WHO YOU LET GO!" Akiyama said in a fit of anger whilst pointing at Ryoba, who is leaving the courtroom with a grin of satisfaction in her face

"QUIET DOWN AKIYAMA! OR I'LL HAVE YOU SUSPENDED FOR DISRESPECT…! Anyway, I have never seen you this pent up over an accused being declared innocent, what is wrong with this case?" The judge said at first with a menacing tone, only to settle down with an inquisitive one shortly after

"Your honor, in my twelve years of career I have dealt with many kinds of cases: Fraud, drug dealing, tax evasion, racketeering; heck! Even disputes for parking tickets! But there is a kind of crime where I don't forgive anything and I relentlessly seek justice for the victims, and that is murder, but you just let a murderer walk away like if she didn't do a damn!"

"Akiyama, and what proof do you have to frame Ms. Aishi for murder huh? And don't talk about the evidence used in this case, it's out of commission"

"I have heard her talk when she's not crying, I was present during the interrogations; she sounds robotic and emotionless at times, and most importantly, have you seen the grin she has?! And don't tell me that's a smile, I know smiles; they are good and sincere, and that isn't either one. Overall, I have a feeling" The prosecutor explained

"Akiyama, you need more than a feeling or a theory to ensure a conviction, you need hard evidence, reliable and verified statements which can be stated in court, and the most important thing: A confession" The judge elaborated

"You think she can confess her crimes, your honor?! She's a professional liar and convinces herself to a level where she believes that her own bullshit is either true or justified!"

"ENOUGH! Ryoba Aishi will remain acquitted of these charges unless you can gather enough evidence to prove her guilty and that's final! Get out of my sight Akiyama! Or I will have you suspended! AND I MEAN IT THIS TIME!" The judge angrily exclaimed, tired of Akiyama's arguments

Akiyama also got tired of the judge's stubbornness, so he simply extended his arms to the heavens in frustration, turned around, headed once again for the prosecution bench, picked up his suitcase and walked away; in the way to the exit, he whispered something to a dark purple-haired woman carrying a toddler of approximately a year of age in her arms.

"Let's get outta here sweetie, that stupid prick has me pissed off, let me carry Toru for a while" The prosecutor Akiyama said to the woman whilst extending his arms to the kid

"Sure Kimihito, Toru missed you a ton, I swear he was going to jump the half-wall into your arms when he recognized the back of your head amongst the prosecutors" The woman said whilst handing over the little kid to Akiyama

"HA HA! There you are smiling again you crazy, lovable little one! You missed daddy, didn't you? Let's get outta here and get you to that American fast food restaurant on Shinjuku, I know you love the slides! Hey! Want a piggyback ride?" Akiyama said cheerfully to the kid as he leaped him in the air whilst walking away from the courtroom, as if all of his worries regarding the case disappeared with just seeing the kid smile and hearing it laugh

"Hi hi! Piggy!" This kid of brown, silky hair, cut in a similar fashion that is shared with many Asian toddlers and wearing a blue overall with a white polo with orange horizontal stripes, cheerily replied with a giggle

This kid was Toru Akiyama, the only child of Kimihito Akiyama. One of the most feared prosecutors in Japan… Until this one case; the infamous Aishi case, struck Kimihito.

As Kimihito and the mother of Toru (Yes, that's right, they weren't even married. Despite being efficient at his job, Kimihito Akiyama was a man who could easily fall prey to the… Pleasures of life) exited the courtroom, hordes of reporters and journalists of all walks of the national, regional and local media came to get the prosecutor's declarations, Kimihito could've sworn he saw even a junior journalist from a school newspaper, the Aishi case sure made ratings jump and papers sell like hot cakes.

"Prosecutor Akiyama! Prosecutor Akiyama! How is Ryoba Aishi walking free today?!" A reporter asked, pointing her microphone at Kimihito's mouth

"Prosecutor Akiyama, how does it feel not being able to bring a conviction to an accused?" A journalist asked, pen and notebook in hand and ready to write down every word uttered by the prosecutor

Kimihito initially ignored all the journalists and reporters until he got ahead of them down the steps; his son and gal in tow, but after a while, they were getting more and more annoying, so he proceeded to address them.

"Look people of the press, today is a dark day for our honorable justice system which; as any other legal system in the world, has its weaknesses, and the main weakness of the Japanese justice system is the softness of the human emotions, contained in our honorable judges and juries, which can variably influence the verdict of a trial. And in this case, we have unknowingly allowed a psychotic murderer disguised as a crying schoolgirl to roam the streets once again. That's all I have to say" Akiyama, once again regaining a professional tone, sternly addressed the press only to quickly turn around and resume his walk with his companions to his vehicle

Of course, the press wanted more than Akiyama's initial statement, so they began pressing him for more.

"Prosecutor! What proof do you have to imply that Ryoba Aishi is a murderer if she was declared innocent by both the jury and the judge?"

"I won't answer any more questions, the prosecutor's office will release a statement concerning the situation when the time is right and we have evidence to back our claims. In the meantime, let me take my son to eat!" Akiyama said whilst quickening his pace

Whilst walking, he was able to spot Ryoba Aishi and her parents hailing a cab in the distance, Kimihito took this moment to sigh and direct a couple of words to his son.

"Toru? Can you see that girl that's alongside her parents on the sidewalk?"

"Huh…? Yes daddy! She cute!" The little Toru said, judging by the appearances

"Her name is Ryoba Aishi son, pay close attention, and make sure you remember her for the rest of your life because… That is the murderer who ruined my career"

Little Toru was confused, and he wasn't sure if the words his father was saying to him made sense, but what he didn't knew, is that this would start to make sense… Nearly thirty years later.

* * *

 **Yamashita Residence, Tokyo, 16th of February of 2019; 3:07 P.M**

The Supreme Court judge Ryo Yamashita had just gotten home from work, and though there wasn't much to do in the office that day other than filling out mountains of paperwork regarding his last case, it was still tiring.

The man opened the door and stepped into his home, greeted his fiancee, his dog, and his mother, who was visiting him for the time being. They all sat down at the diner table, where a warm meal awaited, and began to eat. They spoke a little as they did, with Yamashita sharing a few details of his workday. What seemed to be yet another normal day was about to be turned upside down due to a phone call.

 ** _"I'd like to see how things turn out, if you apply some pressure!"_** Yamashita's phone began to ring

"Son, aren't you going to pick that up?" The man's mother asked

Yamashita picked up his phone and glanced at the screen, only to see some unknown number. So he gently threw and slid away the device on the table, ending up at his fiancee's reach.

"Nah. It's for one: An unknown number. And two: It's interrupting our meal" Ryo answered as he picked up some food with his chopsticks

The trio resumed their eating, and the call eventually went missing. However, about thirty seconds later, the house's landline started to ring. Yamashita reluctantly started to get up from the table.

"Ugh, the only people who call to the landline are from work. Excuse me, dear mother, darling" Dejectedly said the man as he got up

Yamashita then started to walk towards the landline phone, and picked it up.

"Judge Yamashita Ryo, Supreme Court. State your business"

"Ah, judge. Glad you picked up" Answered a voice so disorted you couldn't tell whether it was male or female

Yamashita dealt with these kinds of callers each month, but this was the first to reach his house's landline, which was registered under his ex-wife's name. Yamashita already knew how to answer though.

"Look, if you're here to bother me with blackmailing, save your breath. I can track this number, even if it is a Nyte number or a burner phone, and put you away for a long time, so hang up in this instant"

"No no no, Judge, you see, I am here to offer you some... useful, information"

"Oh yeah? Well, I've dealt with the likes of you during my three years as a Supreme Court judge and over seven years in the ambit of the law, and I'm not going to take the words of some wop crook which I can't even-" Ryo ranted, but was cut off by the caller

"Yes yes yes. I know you don't want nothing in exchange for something, so here is the deal: Does the names... Shinrai Nise, and Saikou Koizumi, ring any bells to you?"

"Well... To _not_ know the latter you would have to be living under a rock, but to know the former you must know law enforcement in Japan, because that's the name of the Police Chief of Buraza Town. Now, what about those two?"

"Alright alright, that's two off the list. Now, the name 'Akiyama Toru'?" Asked the voice yet again, testing the Judge

Ryo thought it well over a second before answering.

"Toru... Akiyama? Isn't he the Buraza Police detective who reopened a thirty-year-old case?"

"Okay okay, it seems like you are somewhat in the know. Now, what if I told you these three names are connected in a giant plot of corruption across _all levels_ of the Japanese Government?"

"I would say: Give me some proof"

"Oh sir, and proof I got, all you need is a computer and a non-SaikouMail address to send it over. If you've got time to listen to my history, then the evidence I'll send will make sense as well" Continued the voice, with extra sass on its tone

Ryo eyed his laptop on the kitchen counter, and his food on the table. He then gave a deep sigh before answering.

"Fine. I've got time, and I'm listening"

* * *

 ** _Last_** ** _day in burglary_**

* * *

 **Buraza Town; September 14** **th** **of 2016. Twenty-six years; ten months; four weeks and one day since Ryoba Aishi's 'Innocent' verdict**

Ahhh, Buraza Town, it brings a tear to my eye. The small town just two hours away from Tokyo that many desired to live in. Sure; Saikou Corporation has a strong hold on the town, but it's still pretty nice to live in, even after all that happened and all the people that moved out, I guess it became bad publicity.

By 2016 many things had changed, Kimihito Akiyama died in 1999 after his life became a wreck because of the Aishi fiasco, and due to contracting Alzheimer's; the poor man forgot how to breathe. And Toru's mother; Kyoko Meiya, had moved into Buraza because it was her hometown, taking Toru with her and she tried to give him the best education she could, but eventually she couldn't control Toru's thirst for justice for his father, because the doctors concluded that all the pressure that the aftermath of the Aishi case generated put a heavy toll on him. Fun fact: every Akiyama for the last ten generations likely had a job at law firms that worked as prosecutors or in law enforcement, and they're usually pretty prone to succeed. At age eighteen Toru fled his home for America, where he landed at Hawaii to become a policeman, he received education and graduated from the police academy with honors and patrolled Honolulu's streets for two years before returning to his homeland to seek for justice. He eventually enrolled in the Buraza Police Academy, but due to his previous training in Hawaii he just took an orientation class to grasp what things are different from American law enforcement; which is honestly not that big of a difference. He spent a handful of years on the beat before finally getting to wear a suit as a detective in early 2015, excelling at being able to close cases with arrests in short periods of time.

 **Alaco gas station, outskirts of Buraza; 2:41 A.M**

Toru always thought he was destined to bring justice in one way or another, either sitting in a prosecution bench like his father or putting his foot down on the streets and dealing with the lowest of scums; obviously he chose the latter, otherwise, we wouldn't be here.

It was Toru's fifth month on the burglary department, him and his partner Aiko Ruto; a young, petite, happy-go-lucky detective who rarely took any credit for her work and was more than content with helping newbies to burglary to settle in, were investigating a string of robberies that had taken the town by surprise, at that time they were following a lead of a mysterious limousine that tended to appear every time a robbery was about to happen and were stopped at a gas station filling the tank up to investigate some more.

Yawn* "So, a black limo stops by the targeted house, drops off the robbers, does a couple of rounds and when the robbers are done it picks them up right when they're needed?" The Detective Ruto asked her partner, she was obviously tired

"Yeah, that's about the M.O of the crime. Seven out of ten house break-ins in Buraza last week had some sort of stretch limo involved, the others are isolated cases and the robbers usually don't have vehicles, witnesses say that the limo usually takes this road to Shisuta Town, so all we need to do is be alert" The Detective Akiyama elaborated whilst refilling

"Geez, I wish we had a Starbucks over here in Buraza, the closest one is in Tokyo, and that's two hours away, I need a really loaded latte! How come you're not tired with this lack of caffeine Akiyama?" Ruto said whilst reentering their unmarked car

"I don't need caffeine to get through the day"

"Are you serious? I'm starting to think you're either high or some sort of vampire"

"Again with the supernatural things Aiko? I can't believe it, I thought you were a rational person"

"Oh, blame my niece, she's such an oddball, I'm the only one that listens to her rambling. She's such a shrinking violet, she doesn't dare to talk to anyone and well, because of the things she talks about I get why nobody wants to be close to her"

"Why is that?"

"She is obsessed with the supernatural, she talks about demons, dark vibes; heck, she even told me once that she thought that two of her schoolmates were vampires! No wonder why she leads the 'Occult Club' over at Akademi High, I seriously don't know what went wrong with Oka, but hey! At least she's passionate about something that isn't drugs or guns! Unlike my youngest cousin" Ruto explained

"Well, as long as we don't have to investigate a case that involves her stealing things because she got 'possessed', we'll be fine" Akiyama joked

"Oh, if that ever gets to happen I'll be the one conducting the interrogation, I always get the truth out of her"

"I have multiple reasons to doubt that statement" Toru deadpanned

"Baka…" Aiko muttered

* * *

 **4:03 A.M**

Some good time had passed, and the Detective Ruto was soundly asleep, whereas Akiyama was alert at the road, but no limos had appeared on the road heading to Shisuta Town up until now... And predictably, now the limo finally showed up! Black with all the chrome painted up and lacking license plates, this definitely had to be it.

"Hey! Aiko! Wake up! The limo showed up! Call it in and tell central we're following them" Toru said whilst starting the engine on their unmarked cruiser and

"Huh? Nani? Okay, let me *Yawn* recover my composure a bit…" Aiko said whilst slowly trying to reach the CB radio's microphone

"Aw crap, if you're gonna awake first then I'm gonna call this in myself… Here" Akiyama said defiantly before swiftly grabbing the microphone faster than Ruto and giving it to her

"Okay okay…! Central, this is car 5- Gōtō reporting a possible suspect vehicle in the limo burglaries, standby for details"

"Where are they headed dammit?"

"Maybe to Shisuta Town, if that's the case, we'll need to block them off so they don't get away from our jurisdiction"

"I have a feeling that they aren't headed towards Shisuta…" Akiyama muttered

"How come?" Ruto inquired

"Well, they just put their turning signals on and they're headed towards a dirt road on the right side of the road, look"

Effectively the limousine had turned right onto a dirt road, Akiyama thought that the best thing to do to avoid raising suspicion was to drive by the road until the limo entered the forest a bit.

"Uh… You went past the road!"

"Don't worry, I know what I'm doing, quick, log into Saikou Maps and tell me if there's any buildings along the road" Akiyama commanded, even though he wasn't the chief detective

"Okay… Aha! There's a ranch at the end of the road… 'Yasei Ranch', the road is about five to seven-hundred metres, no other exits, just the ranch" Ruto commented on the discoveries she made through the on-board computer

"Alright, let's hit it"

With that, Akiyama turned off the headlights of their cruiser, did a 180-degree turn and headed off onto the trail.

* * *

 **Yasei Ranch, outskirts of Buraza Town; 4:07 A.M**

"Well, this is way bigger than I expected" Aiko yelped in surprise

"Nothing we can't deal with actually" Akiyama said confidently

What they were those two talking about? Well, they were talking about the fact that this 'Yasei Ranch' wasn't a ranch at all, it was rather a massive warehouse guarded by armed thugs, with a massive fleet of black limos like the one they were following in the yard, with several of them unloading stolen appliances.

"What are you talking about?! We're absolutely outnumbered! We couldn't disarm each one without getting shot!"

"Disarm? With our bare hands? Aiko, don't be a dreamer right now. We either call black and whites, wait about ten minutes to an hour until they arrive; not to mention the fact they'll come with their sirens on, alerting the perps. Or we can storm the place right now and considering there's enough evidence to make a couple dozen arrests, and get a giant commendation, a medal, or better yet, a promotion" Toru said determinately

"Ehhh… You know I wouldn't like to get promoted right? The homicide squad is pretty gloomy… And yucky… But the medal will do! What's the plan Mr. Honolulu swatter?"

"Just so you know, I never was in the HPD SWAT team… Anyway, here's the plan, you jump the fence from the back, and I'll run a distraction through the front. Take your radio with you so you can call for uniformed back-up when they fire the first shot, if we're lucky enough, we should be able to clear the ranch before our back-up arrives" Akiyama elaborated in a commanding voice

"Okay… How will I know when they fire the first shot?" Ruto asked

"No need to know who, all you need to know is when"

"Got it! Let's hit it!" The Detective Ruto said enthusiastically whilst drawing a .38 caliber revolver

"Really? A .38? What is this? 1947?" Akiyama joked

"What? I've been for longer in the force so they let me carry a revolver!"

"But you joined only two years earlier than me"

"Shut up and let's get to work" Aiko said before wandering off to find a back entrance leaving Toru to put his plan in motion

Akiyama sprinted back to the unmarked cruiser and headed for the front entrance.

* * *

 **4:10 A.M**

The Detective Akiyama had a fool-proof plan, but that's because he would be doing the dumbest part of the plan, attempting to waltz right in through the front door without firing a single shot.

He got the cruiser down from the hill him and the Detective Ruto were settled to go down the front gate, blasted up the headlights in high beams and pulled over right in front of the gate, where one of the thugs obviously noticed.

"Hey! Civilian! What the hell are you doing?" The thug menacingly asked

"Civilian? You obviously got it all wrong pal! I come here to do my business!" Akiyama played it dumb whilst getting down from the cruiser and leaving the door open

"You're the one who obviously has it wrong. Get. Lost" The thug aimed at Akiyama's head with a shotgun

"Do you have any idea of who you're talking to?"

"No, and I don't care"

"Let me refresh your mind with two simple words: Buraza. Police" Akiyama said in a calm tone before swiftly punching the barrel of the shotgun down and the thug in the face, retrieving his shotgun and then shooting the thug with it… This is where the fun begins

Akiyama took cover with the car door that he opened and swiftly turned on the cruiser's police lights and siren to signal that the people they're trying to get a shot on are law enforcers… It's safe to say that it just got them angrier, with a bigger hellfire of bullets descending upon the car.

Using as much cover as possible, he used the CB radio to contact his partner in order to get some updates.

"Aiko! Aiko...! Shit! How are you holding up?!" Toru asked somewhat altered

"Unnoticed as of now! You have the spotlight partner!" Aiko cheerily replied

"Well, in this situation having the spotlight isn't very good! Can you help me out by clearing the idiots on higher ground?! You won't be noticed unless you expose yoursel-oh shit! Anyway, they're ganging up on me and I need help! They're using revolvers too so your shots shouldn't sound suspicious!" Akiyama said as a series of bullets nearly hit him

"Coming right up!"

"Drop your weapons! Cease and desist! Back-up is on the way!" Akiyama exclaimed as he took out some thugs by shooting them in the legs with his shotgun

After taking out some thugs on the entrance, Akiyama moved forward and took cover behind a stack of wooden planks, as he tried to blind-fire with the shotgun he was carrying, he realized the thing had ran out of bullets.

"Just my luck… Buraza Police! Cease the shooting!" Toru said whilst taking his concealed 9mm pistol out of the holster underneath his jacket

As he cleared the yard of the warehouse Toru released a bunch of witty remarks.

"How long you're gonna keep this up?" He said whilst shooting a thug in the abdomen

And there's also:

"What's wrong with these people?!"

Or maybe:

"A jail cell or both the cell and a wheelchair! Your choice! Not mine friend!" Akiyama smugly said before shooting a thug in the legs

Also:

"This is what I missed since I left Honolulu!"

And well:

"I'm getting awfully tired of this! Can't you all take the cuffs for once?!" He said whilst reloading his pistol

But in the end, he was either handicapping them or killing them the same with the bullets he fired.

* * *

 **Front warehouse entrance; 4:17 A.M**

"Drop the weapon! I have your head in my sights!" Akiyama said to a thug that was pointing an assault rifle at him whilst Akiyama himself had his pistol pointed at the thug

"Make m-" The thug said as he got cut short by a bullet piercing his skull

As the corpse of the thug dropped to the ground it revealed the Detective Ruto reloading her revolver, she was pretty much unscathed, sadly, the same can't be said for Toru Akiyama as he reloaded too…

Akiyama had red spots all over his clothing, some spots bigger than others, most of them were in his shoulders and the sides of his thorax. Naturally, Akiyama's partner was worried about his health.

"Oi! What happened to you! You have more holes than a Swiss cheese!" Ruto said worryingly

Toru took a look at himself, he seemed unfazed by the fact he was riddled with bullets, and actually, he shrugged to let his partner know he didn't give a fuck.

"Well, it's decided, I'm not wearing another white suit to work ever again… And don't you worry about this, as long as the adrenaline keeps running, I won't feel it" The wounded detective deadpanned

"No! You're not moving from here until our back-up arrives and we call for an ambulance! And since I'm your superior here, that's an order!" The petite detective commanded

And as they had their discussion, a dozen police sirens were heard entering the compound, it was the back-up they were desperately waiting for. And it had finally arrived, as the uniformed officers got down from their cruisers they pointed their weapons at the couple of detectives preemptively.

"Put the weapons down and identify yourselves!" The officer shouted, obviously uninformed of who he was dealing with

"No can do partner, detectives Ruto and Akiyama, burglary, badges 953 and 1123 respectively" Akiyama replied to the officer

"Oh, you're the ones that called for back-up? This place seems clear! I'm the officer Kaskabe, primary responder" The officer said whilst putting his weapon down

"The yard is clear, but the warehouse is full of goons officer, and as you can see, the Detective Akiyama is wounded" Ruto piped up

"Alright then, take a squad car and take the injured unit to the nearest medical center, I'm sure that the captain will want you out of here, we'll handle this"

"I can shoot goons and take the pain just fine!"

"Oh no, you can't! We're off to the hospital Toru!" Aiko said whilst pushing Toru to a squad car

"Oh Aiko…" Akiyama muttered

* * *

 **Buraza General Hospital, Downtown Buraza Town; 11:36 A.M**

Ah, Toru Akiyama, toughest guy you'll ever meet, he took pain like candy and a bullet barely moved him. He used to say that he had so many of his nerves shot off that he wouldn't feel anything, I never believed that story, but it sure seemed like it once you saw him dealing with thugs on the beat, but that isn't relevant right now.

Toru and his partner were exiting the hospital after the former was discharged, they spent the whole morning writing the case report right after the uniformed officers gave them the lowdown of what they found, who was downed and who they could arrest in the ranch; well, rather Toru spent the whole morning writing the report, since Aiko fell asleep, the poor broad was really tired.

As they were going down the hospital ramp, the burglary captain; Hideo Yatsuda, greeted them.

"Hello there detectives! I heard about what went down at the Yasei Ranch, quite the story to tell isn't it?"

"Well, it is quite the tale, but I'll let the report do that for me in this case" Akiyama said whilst nonchalantly handing the report to the captain

"Wow, you never cease to amaze me with your straightforwardness Akiyama, always straight to business, and that's always a great thing in force!" The cap replied, cheery as always as he grabbed the case report

"Congratulations Ruto! It was no problem" Aiko sarcastically said in a way that sounded like if she was telling that to herself

"Well, I was getting to that detective! I heard what you did over at the ranch, always supportive of your partners, you did a stellar job taking care of those threats, and that deserves a commendation. I'll speak with the chief to see if I can get you both a nice and shiny medal, sounds good?"

"Sounds just great… Hey! You owe me a drink!" Aiko and Toru said at exactly the same time

"Huh, you two have a great chemistry, it's I'm ashamed that I must be the one to bring bad news for this partnership…" The captain said with a downcast look in his face and the tone to match it

"What's wrong Captain?" Aiko asked out of curiosity

"Well… The Detective Akiyama here… Just got approved a promotion to the homicide squad thanks to this case, the chief informed me early in the morning. Akiyama, you'll now have to report to the Captain Itachi Kobawa, starting tomorrow, you can take the day off… Ruto, I expect you in my office so I can take your declarations on this case"

"Copy that cap… So… You're now headed to homicide?" She at first said to the captain and then to Akiyama

"Seems like that's the case…" Toru said with a hint of sadness

"And I'll be off, see you at the precinct Ruto!" The captain said before walking off

"You know, I always thought that one of these days you'd get promoted, but I never thought it would be this soon, well, I had to imagine it, considering how you've been going like a blaze through the ranks… But hey, I'm proud of you Toru"

"Hey, don't worry, this isn't the last you've seen of me, I'll try to run into you as much as I can in the precinct"

"It's fine for me as long as it doesn't hamper your performance!" Aiko said cheerfully

"I've been working with you for the last five months and my performance hasn't reduced in the slightest dummy" Toru snapped

"That was mean…! Anyway, I'll be seeing you around… Partner" She said before giving Toru a bear hug and walking off

"And I'll be seeing you too…" Akiyama muttered as he was left alone with his thoughts

It looked like a tough break if you ask me, but Akiyama got through it since he knew Ruto wasn't going anywhere, she was just going to leave his side because he got too good for her.

* * *

 ** _Promotion_**

* * *

 **Buraza Police Central Precinct, Downtown Buraza Town; September 15** **th** **of 2016**

Toru's first day on homicide… I remember it very clearly, he looked a bit downcast but at the same time optimistic, he greeted everyone as usual and almost got himself into the burglary debrief room out of habit, but before opening the door he realized his mistake and headed to the second floor, where the homicide debrief room was located, as he entered Toru's presence sure turned some heads, but he didn't give a damn to the attention and just took a seat as the captain entered the room with him.

"Okay ladies and gentlemen, I'm late for a meeting so let's make this quick, Toru Akiyama here present got promoted to our department from burglary blah blah blah, so I'm partnering him with Ichiro Suzuki so he can show Akiyama the ropes blah blah blah. Talking about ropes I got your first case already Akiyama: An apparent suicide occurred at Akademi High, the victim's name's 'Osana Najimi', she took a plunge from the school's rooftop, move it to Akademi and investigate it as a murder case, coroner's on the scene… And Akiyama, here we do things differently than in burglary. If you can't find solid evidence in eight hours we close the case and forget about the issue… Got it? Now move it" The Captain Kobawa said in a no-bullshit tone before moving onto the next couple of partners

Toru stood up and looked around, a man with black hair and grey eyes easily in his late forties approached him dressed in a rather badly treated beige suit, he knew this was his new partner.

"So you're my new partner, right? Let's hope you don't end like the last one" He kind-of-threateningly said

"What happened to them?"

"They ended up in Ad-Vice"

"That doesn't sound bad at all" Akiyama retorted

"If you knew what happens at Ad-Vice, you'd know that the place is hell on earth for honest guys like us" Suzuki deadpanned

As Ichiro said that, Toru was a bit confused, but he just shrugged it off and headed with his partner towards the parking lot, where their means of transportation was awaiting, in this case, a plain pale blue 1993 Ibishu Pessima.

"I don't know how much of a knack you have for driving so I'll leave it to you to decide, take the wheel and it's okay, don't take it and I'll drive us to Akademi" Ichiro sternly said as he stood beside the car

"Don't worry, I'll drive… And what's with this attitude of yours?" Toru asked as he opened the door and sat on the driver's seat

"Homicide makes you like this kid. The blood, the death of innocents, the incident in the eighties and the fact that no-one has been able to close a case with arrests since the beginning of the millennium because they placed that stupid time limit"

"I assume you mean that eight-hour limit right? Sounds unorthodox if you ask me, a murder investigation can take days if not weeks, I saw that all the time in Honolulu. But don't worry, I know how to work with what I'm given, we should be able to have everything wrapped up by sleep time"

"That outlook sounds exaggeratedly optimistic in my opinion" Suzuki deadpanned

"And your outlook is unbearably depressive in mine. Just follow my lead and you'll see how the pieces fall in place, maybe you'll even recover your faith in the homicide squad" Akiyama said whilst starting up the engine

"With all I've seen and our crime scene, I doubt it"

"Oh dear gods; with the exception of Aiko Ruto, why do I always get shitty partners?" Toru said to the heavens

"Hey! I heard that you asswipe" Ichiro complained

"I know, I just want you to have my personal opinion on you clear"

"Son of a bitch…" Suzuki muttered

And with that insult Exchange, they were off to Akademi High. What Toru Akiyama didn't knew, however, was that this case and the ones that would come follow would throw everything he thought he knew about police work to the trash…

* * *

 ** _La noteishon:_** Well, this is it, my next big project. A YanSim fanfic seen from the point of what would be an antagonist in the game. For now Akiyama seems pretty barebones but as of now imagine him as a young journalist with a badge and all the wits to pull an investigation this big, also I hope that the trial scene gives Y'all at least a little bit of reasons why Akiyama's gonna do what he's gonna do, if not, be sure to ask away! I'm always glad to clear up doubts… Unless you pull a Midori.

December the 4th chapter update: Corrected several spelling and grammar mistakes that were cringe-worthy.

November 3rd 2019 update: Added a new scene revolving around the unknown informant and the Judge Ryo.


	2. Welcome to homicide

_**Chapter one: Welcome to homicide.**_

* * *

Whether you are in the government, a small town police department, or a multi-trillion dollar conglomerate, there's always one thing that's always the same. Orders, they are absolute and they are not meant to be defied, yet sometimes if you do defy them, you can hit the jackpot. Toru was one of those guys who would defy orders in his relentless quests for justice, and it seemingly turned out very well for him. So we now know the man's mentality, but, did it get him far in life? Well, I won't talk about it now, just listen to this little story about his first murder case.

* * *

 **The streets of residential Buraza; Thursday, September 15** **th** **of 2016; 1:32 P.M**

Akiyama and his partner were on the way to Akademi High in dead silence, Toru, uncomfortable with the amount of silence he was dealing with, decided to emit a couple of words in order to start a conversation.

"I wonder whose childhood friend was" Akiyama said out loud

"Huh? What?" Ichiro piped up

"I'm talking about the victim, I wonder who it was childhood friends with"

"And what does that have to do with the case?"

"Nothing, it has more to do with her name actually" Akiyama answered

"In which way? Enlighten me" Suzuki said in a deadpan

"Well, her name is 'Osana Najimi' right? Well, it turns out that her name; if written without spaces, converts into the name of an anime and manga genre where the protagonist falls in love with their childhood friend, also that means childhood friend per-se by the way"

"Wait, are you an otaku Akiyama?"

"We're dealing with high schoolers Ichiro, we've got to understand their references during an interrogation" Toru answered sternly

"That doesn't change the fact that you watched otaku trash" Suzuki said with venom

"First: I didn't watch anything, just a quick Wikipedia investigation throughout the anime portal was enough for me to find out about that. Secondly: Let's change the subject shall we?"

"Whatever you say, 'Otayama'… I have a little information for you"

"What now…? And call me by that nickname again and you'll be rolling on the pavement" Akiyama warned threateningly

"Message NOT received. Anyway, I was about to tell you about the fact that once we are in Akademi, we'll have to move as quickly as possible, we can't hang around there for long" Suzuki explained

"Why is that?"

"I certainly don't know, but from what I've heard, the headmaster's really scooched up with the police chief, and the headmaster doesn't take very kindly any sort of police presence on school grounds"

"Even during a murder investigation? Knowing that there may be a killer on the loose that could murder his students without mercy?!" Akiyama asked worryingly

"Even if there's a murder investigation ongoing. They've been behaving like that since the Aishi incident in the eighties, they want to preserve the school's 'high and mighty' reputation, even if it means putting the students' security in the line for that, I think he also pushed the chief in giving us that absurd time limit" Ichiro explained in detail

"Son of a bitch… And to think I wanted my children to study at Akademi. Heck! I almost ended up in Akademi myself!"

"Now I've made you not regret your decision of fleeing to America and to ponder more about your non-existent child's safety, you're welcome"

* * *

 **Akademi High School, residential Buraza; 1:38 P.M**

"Here we are, Akademi High… Weird, there's no news vans around here" Akiyama pondered

"When something happens at Akademi High, people remain tight-lipped about the whole ordeal, the gods may know why though… Follow me, the corpse should be close to a fountain" Suzuki explained and commanded, since it was Toru's first time around the Akademi school grounds, he simply complied

"This is a restricted area misters" An officer that was guarding the entrance told to the pair of detectives, to which Akiyama and Suzuki responded with flashing their badges. "Oh, come through detectives, the coroner's on the west outer fountain along with the corpse" The officer said as he let the detectives through the security detail.

As they walked towards the corpse, Akiyama couldn't help but notice how beautiful Akademi was. The long corridor adorned by green bushes and cherry trees that let its petals gracefully fall to the ground along with the imposing figure of the school in the background, all of this complimented by a sunny day... And to think there is a corpse rotting by the outer west fountain.

Before getting to the main doors they turned right to head for the east wing on the school through a passageway, as they got closer to the corner, things started to look more like a crime scene; there were several police officers, 'Do not cross' and 'Crime scene' yellow tape, and of course, a coroner seemingly struggling with a gadget. Our pair of detectives flashed their badges to the officers guarding the crime scene, to which they responding with a nod and raising the yellow tape so they walk inside, the coroner greeted them.

"Ichiro Suzuki! Long time no see, finally got a case where we could meet huh?" The coroner greeted, surprisingly in a chipper attitude

"For a person who makes a living off being surrounded by corpses, you sure are cheery Hideo" Ichiro said in a deadpan

"Hey, you know better than anyone that I'm dead inside, I just try to not gloom the people around me"

"Wow, what an uncomfortable conversation" Akiyama butted in

"And who's this guy Ichiro? Don't tell me that's your partner" Hideo, the coroner asked in surprise

"Well, I guess an introduction's in order. Hideo, this is the Detective Toru Akiyama. Toru, this is Hideo Yamamoto, one of the many coroners that serves this fine town" Suzuki introduced each one in a gloomy tone

"Pleasure to meet you Mr. Yamamoto" Toru said before placing two of his fingers in his forehead to make a salute

"I was about to wonder why we didn't shake hands, I then remembered the mess I have in my hands… Also, don't call me Mr. Yamamoto, I'm not a fan of formalities. Call me by my first name"

"I'll bear that in mind. What do you have for us?"

"Not much detective, as per usual I'm struggling with this Saikou piece of crap, I'm sure Saikou Corp. keeps sending us devices in clear alpha for testing, I haven't been able to get any forensics out of this, and I'm not surprised considering no other police department in the world has these things, but, you guys have to see this… Akiyama, I can sense you're new to homicide, so I recommend you to hold your nose" Hideo explained as they walked towards the corpse

"Don't worry, I've dealt with hit and run cases in traffic, this shouldn't be any different" Toru bragged

"Toru, this is Akademi High, I'm sure that this will definitely be a surprise for you" Ichiro warned

"Why is that?"

"You'll see now" Hideo said as he uncovered a corpse that was covered in a bloodstained white cover

"… Holy mother of shit" Akiyama said in surprise

Underneath the drapes, there was the corpse of a schoolgirl dressed in a white-and-blue seifuku; the standard Akademi uniform, with orange hair tied in long pigtails… She also had her neck snapped in a way that some of the skin around it was ripped apart, allowing them to see the inside of the girl's neck. She was lying in a pool of her own blood and the uniform was stained beyond relief, she was also lacking any sort of footwear, the only thing covering her feet was her orange stockings with polka dots.

"What a way to die…"

"I doesn't matter how you go, once you're gone" Ichiro deadpanned

"Well, here's what I'm able to tell without any forensics: She fell from the roof vertically, with her head pointing to the ground and looking up, she severed her jugular and her neck got snapped upon impact, rendering her dead as soon as she touched the ground"

"Wait, the dive doesn't make sense" Toru interjected

"What do you mean?" Ichiro inquired

"Jumpers usually take a belly dive or fall in their backs when falling from buildings of this height. This can mean one of two things: She either wanted to make sure that she would be dead upon impact, judging from the lack of footwear, or…" Akiyama elaborated as he raised his head towards the school rooftop, precisely at the spot where Najimi could have jumped

"… She got pushed off the roof… You're thinking what I'm thinking?" Suzuki said whilst taking his eyesight to the same spot where Toru was looking

"Likely… Officer, we have any witnesses in the rooftop?" Akiyama asked a nearby police officer

"Sure detective, three girls in the rooftop. Names are: Saki Miyu, Kokona Haruka, and Ayano Aishi. They're being held in place by the first responders, Haruka made the emergency call" The guarding officer explained

"Roger, tell the officers on the rooftop that my partner and I are on the way… Hideo, bag the corpse and take it to the morgue in Tokyo if you can, be sure to run the necessary inquiries; including running the whole body for fingerprints, and leave the results as a message for Ichiro and me with the dispatcher when you're done… Wait a second, officer, can you repeat the name of the last witness?"

"Ayano Aishi…" The officer said in a surprised tone

"I've definitely heard that surname before. And… It feels really familiar, like if it has followed me my whole life" Akiyama determined

"I'm sure it has Akiyama, if I recall correctly, your father was the lead prosecutor on the case against her mother Ryoba" Suzuki interjected whilst putting a hand in Toru's shoulder

"The case that ruined his career…" Toru muttered

As he finished saying that, I'm one hundred percent sure that Toru's childhood passed in front of his eyes, every moment that his father cursed the existence of Ryoba Aishi. All of the times he relentlessly searched for evidence to reopen the case, and even his last words… 'Fucking Aishi, you ruined me'.

"Hey, stay cool, and don't let a family grudge cloud your judgment. Don't even dare to pin a charge against Aishi without evidence, otherwise you'll end up wearing a uniform again before you know it" Ichiro warned threateningly as he pulled Toru away

"Sure… I'll bear that in mind…" Akiyama muttered as he walked behind Suzuki, following him to the rooftop

* * *

 **Akademi High's rooftop; 1:45 P.M**

As Ichiro and Toru entered Akademi High's rooftop via the west entrance, the only thing noticeable was two officers that were trying to talk down two girls; one with purple hair tied in twin drills and another one with blue hair tied in two long pigtails, in refraining to try to walk away from the area. In the distance, however, there was a black-haired girl with her hair tied in a single ponytail on the back of her head sitting in a bench, guarded by a police officer. The detectives first approached the two girls discussing with the officers.

"Officers, go take a break, we'll handle these two ladies" Ichiro signaled as both him and Toru flashed their badges

"Finally, I was getting tired of them, they're all yours detectives" The officer said as he patted his partner to walk away

"I'll handle the interrogation, you serve as my back-up" Akiyama said as he drew a notebook and a pencil from his blazer

"Huh, this'll be interesting"

"Okay… Saki Miyu and Kokona Haruka I assume?" Toru asked the pair of ladies

"I'm Saki" Said the blue-haired one

"And I'm Kokona" Said the purple-haired one

"Okay… I'm the Detective Akiyama and he's the Detective Suzuki… I was wondering if you two could answer a couple of questions" Akiyama said whilst writing their names and making quick sketches of them in his notebook

"Sure, ask away" Both of them answered at the same time before giggling

"What is your relationship with the victim?"

"Acquaintances, Osana and I weren't that close… I feel ashamed of that, I could've helped her" Saki said whilst looking down and grabbing her left arm

"And you Kokona?" Akiyama said as he finished writing Saki's statement and pointed at Kokona with his pencil

"Same as Saki, although I was a bit closer to her, I used to see her hang around the Cooking Club room, we usually discussed about our ways to cook and shared tips until Osana got really defensive when asked if she found motivation to cook on a person she was close to, she went really tsun-tsun and I was always like 'Chill out partner!'" Haruka said as she made a gesture to describe how she acted out when Osana got defensive

"Uh-huh. How did the events in the roof transpire?"

"Well, actually we couldn't see much. Saki and I were talking behind the A/C unit and before we knew it we heard Osana scream" Kokona explained

"And when we popped our heads, we saw Ayano-chan taking a peek from the guardrail and shouting… I know it is a dumb question to ask, but can I swear in front of you? It's relevant" Saki completed and asked for permission to swear

"Miyu, as long as it is relevant to the case, and even much more when it's part of a quote said by a… Suspect" Akiyama explained as he wrote and hesitated to call Ayano a suspect, but with Saki Miyu's statement, he had all the reason to do it

"Good, Ayano-chan said: 'Oh crap she took the jump', and Miss Responsible here took the responsibility to call you all" Miyu said the quote in an emotionless tone and then pointed to Kokona, who was blushing

"Okay… What do you girls know about Ayano?"

"Ehhh… Not much, she's pretty weird to be honest… I've heard she spends all day staring at some upperclassman" Kokona said and she whispered the rumor to the Detectives

"Well, that's a tasty nugget of unnecessary information" Ichiro deadpanned

"No information is useless when talking about a suspect Ichiro… Is that it?" Akiyama sternly berated Suzuki and then turned to the girls

"I don't know anything else, what about you Saki?" Haruka asked her companion

"I only know as much as you do" Saki said as she shrugged

"In that case, we're done here, Toru wrote down your statements so you girls are allowed to leave the rooftop, wait patiently until we are able to let you all go home" Ichiro instructed

"Understood" Both girls said at the same time as they walked away

"Time to face the elephant in the room" Akiyama said with a determined look in his face

"Don't go overboard, lawyers love that shit" Suzuki warned

"Trust me, I'll treat her like any other suspect"

With that exchange, Suzuki and Akiyama walked towards the bench where Ayano was sitting, they once again flashed their badges to the officer guarding her and signaled him to stand down. She complied and now the detectives were all alone with Ayano Aishi.

"Ayano Aishi?" Toru asked

"Yes?" She responded in the same tone

"Detectives Akiyama and Suzuki. We're here to ask you some questions about what transpired in this rooftop" Suzuki continued

"Go ahead" Aishi responded blandly

Akiyama coughed slightly to get his throat ready and began his interrogation.

"Ms. Aishi, what happened in the rooftop with Osana Najimi?"

"Well, I was enjoying the view, then I saw Osana taking her shoes off, leaving a note in them and taking a jump towards a certain death. She looked very downcast, you could say depressed" Aishi stated coldly as she pointed at Osana's shoes that were close to the guardrail

"Why didn't you stop her?" Akiyama asked intrigued

"I wasn't 'friends' with Osana, I considered her… a rival"

"A rival in what?"

"In… Everything…" Ayano said basically under her breath, yet the Detective Akiyama caught it

"Okay… Kokona and Saki told us you took a peek at Osana's corpse, what was your reaction?"

"'Oh crap, she took the jump'" Aishi quoted her own words in her emotionless voice, it sounded very eerie

"You didn't sound very shocked at the fact she took the jump didn't you?" Akiyama pushed

"Yes, I wasn't, I was hoping that one of these days Osana would go away, I didn't expect it to be like this. But it will do" Ayano nonchalantly said before shrugging

"Geez… Toru, let's leave her alone, she's giving me the creeps and we got what we needed, we should go take a look at the shoes" Ichiro said as he pulled Toru's sleeve from behind

Toru hesitated for a second before answering, he didn't have a reason nor evidence to accuse Ayano of murder, but his gut feelings told him to do it by only using the way she replied to them, but since that wasn't enough evidence, he had to let Ryoba Aishi's daughter go. He sighed and then addressed Aishi.

"You're allowed to leave the rooftop Aishi, stay alert so you know when to leave the school" Akiyama said sternly

"Gladly" She emotionlessly said as she picked herself up and walked away

Toru and Ichiro stayed there for a second, pondering with their own ideas. Akiyama was the first to snap.

"Ichiro, if Hideo's still around, tell him to give me some latex gloves, if there's evidence on the shoes themselves I don't want to contaminate it, I'll read the note" Akiyama commanded

"I'll go check that out right now" Suzuki said as he headed to the stairwell

As Ichiro walked away, Toru approached Osana's shoes and carefully took the note that was neatly tucked in the left shoe to read it, and it went like this:

* * *

 _I never thought I'd be doing this._

 _But what has happened in the last week doesn't leave me any other choice._

 _I poured my heart to one special person only to have it stomped and shattered in a million pieces._

 _So I'm done._

 _I'm done with love._

 _I'm done with life._

 _I've already made up my mind._

 _Don't try to convince me otherwise._

 _ **Hoping that you all rot in hell; Osana.**_

* * *

"Well, that's a nice farewell letter" Toru said sarcastically as he read the note left by Osana

"Hey Toru! What did you find? I have those gloves you asked for!" Hideo said from the top of the stairwell case

"You two get over here! Come read this!" Toru commanded to both the coroner and his partner

"What do you have there?" Ichiro asked

"The most heartwarming farewell letter you'll ever see!" Akiyama said jokingly

The trio gathered to read Osana's farewell letter, and well, they drew their conclusions.

"So, if this is actually a suicide then we have a reason why Najimi plunged from the roof" Suzuki pointed out

"Yes, it looks like somebody broke her heart, poor girl" Toru concluded

"Something feels odd about this considering your original conclusions folks, you should compare the handwriting in this letter with one of Najimi's notebooks" Hideo suggested

"Since when are you a detective, Hideo?" Ichiro sarcastically remarked

"Ever since I realized that I was smarter than most of you folks on homicide"

"Wow, so this is when the dead inside persona shows its true colors" Toru deadpanned

"Trust me, it gets only worse when Ichiro tries to be smart!" The coroner returned to his chipper demeanor as he patted Akiyama in the back

"He he… You have a point though, we should requisition Najimi's book bag right away"

"Wait, what am I here for then? Tips and hints? Because I'm glad to help but I have to conduct the autopsy on Osana Najimi's corpse" Hideo asked

"Nah, you're here to bag some evidence for us, see those shoes there? They're supposedly Najimi's" Ichiro indicated as he turned Hideo in the direction of the shoes

"Oh, I'll get on it right away, I'll also be sending you two whatever I find on these shoes with the dispatcher, give me the note too, I'll send you a scanned copy by email so you can compare them on the go" The coroner said as he put the gloves on, picked the shoes up and placed them in an evidence bag

"Okay, that's a wrap-up with the evidence… What now?" Toru asked to himself as he handed the note to the coroner

"We can either go acquire Najimi's bag or talk with the guidance counselor. Take a pick" Ichiro answered

Toru stood there for some good seconds pondering about where to go, as quickly as he could, Akiyama took his decision.

"Counselor's office, lead the way" Toru commanded

Ichiro nodded and headed for the stairwell case, Toru followed suit, as they went down the stairs, Toru asked Ichiro a question.

"Ichiro, I was wondering, why are we heading to guidance counselor's office? Shouldn't we be speaking with the headmaster?" Toru asked out of curiosity as they walked

"Let me explain why, first: Remember what I told you about the headmaster? Well, he doesn't even like police officers or detectives asking for information from him even when there's a fresh corpse in school grounds, and the last detective that did it got demoted back to patrol the following week. Second: The asshole is about to retire so he delegated most; if not all, of his duties to the counselor, he doesn't do anything other than filling tax returns, taking money away from parents and wondering what will be the school's next PR stunt. And finally: The counselor is way more cooperative and friendly towards us, she gets the importance of our job. Is that enough?" Ichiro carefully elaborated

"At least you're able to make coherent answers"

"Fuck you Akiyama"

Toru simply scoffed at that.

* * *

 **Student Counselor's office, Akademi High School; 1:58 P.M**

Both men were standing in front of the counselor's office. The Detective Suzuki took the task of filling Toru in.

"Well, here we are. The broad's name is Genka Kunahito, real nice person. She'll provide you with everything student-related for the case. Well, except for permission to requisition bags that aren't our victim's. But she'll be more of a help than the headmaster" Suzuki explained

"Thanks for the heads-up. Despite your usual attitude, you're a good partner" Akiyama complimented

"Save it Toru"

"And we're back to square one"

After the exchange of words. The detectives opened the door and stepped in the office, the guidance counselor jerked her head up from the computer and proceeded to greet the detectives.

"Oh, Detective Suzuki, it's a pleasure meeting you again" The counselor said in a professional tone

"What's with all the formality Genka? Aren't you happy to see me?" Ichiro said without a care in the world as he took a seat in one of the couches in the room

"Of course I am…! It's just that…" She said; flustered by the way, before gently pointing with her head at Toru

"Am I sensing something… Kinky here?" Toru said smugly

"Very funny Toru, you're making things worse… Anyway Genka, that's the Detective Toru Akiyama there, my new partner and a real piece of work. He'll be asking you some questions about what happened here" Ichiro complained at Toru and then addressed the counselor

"A pleasure meeting you Ms. Kunahito" Akiyama said whilst taking a bow

"The pleasure is mutual Detective Akiyama, what can I help you with?" Kunahito said as she also took a bow before taking a seat again

"Can I get a student overview of Osana Najimi? It's very pertinent to the case as she's the victim" Toru said as he took a seat

"Sure, give me a second… Here you go" Genka muttered as she searched for something in her computer and then turned the laptop to Toru

Najimi's profile seemed very clean, resident of class 2-1, clubless since her first year in Akademi, good qualifications, associated with a 'Taro Yamada' (At the moment Toru thought that Osana's friend wasn't identified for some reason due to the name) and… Two recent citations to the counselor's office?

"Ms. Kunahito, can you explain why Osana Najimi was called here in two occasions recently?" Akiyama said as he drew his notebook and proceeded to draw a quick sketch of Genka along with her name

"Well, the first citation occurred on last week's Tuesday, when an anonymous student gave me the information that Najimi was taking… Panty shots of other students, she tried to deny it, but I found the evidence on her phone and gave her a warning. The other one was on last week's Friday, where… Another, anonymous student made a report of her smuggling cigarettes into the school grounds, she once again tried to deny it, but I found an untouched pack in her bag and got her suspended for three school days" Kunahito explained

Kunahito hesitated when she mentioned the 'anonymous student' who made the second report, this piqued Akiyama's curiosity, because he could sense she was hiding the truth.

"Ms. Kunahito, are you aware that you hesitated when naming the second 'anonymous student' right? You're hiding something Genka, don't deny it" Following this, Genka gulped audibly "And for the record, withholding information from the police during a criminal investigation is a serious offense! Do you seriously want to lose your career over an ungrateful brat who wouldn't hesitate to stab you in the back it had the chance Ms. Kunahito? Why don't you drop this?" Akiyama pushed his luck with every word, each one stronger in delivery and meaning through the sentence

"Alright! The student who made the reports was Ayano Aishi, she came to my office in both days. But considering what I found in Najimi's phone and bag, everything that was done is justified detective!" Genka defended herself

"I know, you were doing the right thing for the school. But remember. Counselor-Student confidentiality ends the moment a detective steps in this office during a criminal investigation. Do you receive?" Toru asked commandingly as he wrote down Kunahito's confession

Kunahito simply sighed in resignation.

"I understand detective, are we done?" Genka said, demotivated

"Just one more thing… Where did you meet this jackass?" Toru said with a goofy grin whilst pointing at the Detective Suzuki with his pencil

"Oh you…" Kunahito muttered before giggling a bit

"Alright you asshole, we're outta here" Ichiro said as he locked Toru's left arm in his and dragged him away

"Well! It looks like it's a question for another day! It's been a pleasure meeting you Ms. Kunahito!" Toru said as he was dragged outside

"He he… If I didn't knew better, I could say that those two could grow to be more than partners" Genka muttered under her breath as the door was closed

As the two detectives got outside, Suzuki released his grip on Akiyama's arm.

"What was that for?!" Suzuki asked whilst practically gritting his teeth

"It was a perfectly legitimate question Casanova! I can't believe you have a thing for women in business suits" Akiyama joked to get in his nerves

"Not. Another. WORD. Understand?" Ichiro threatened

"Whatever you say… Playboy"

"I swear that if you weren't my partner…"

"Anyway, guide us to the central plaza, we need to speak to a Taro Yamada" Toru gave an advice

"What? How are we going to talk with someone we don't even know their real name?" Ichiro asked perplexed

"Easy Suzuki. We look for a person crying their souls out over Osana" Toru nonchalantly explained

* * *

 **Akademi High's central plaza; 2:03 P.M**

As soon as the two detectives entered the central plaza of Akademi they stuck out like a sore thumb, they were two grown-up men in suits in the middle of a yard filled with high schoolers and that sure attracted undesired sights, Ichiro seemed slightly uncomfortable with the unwanted attention, but Toru was more focused on the task at hand, which was finding a grieving student. Carefully scanning the plaza, he found what he was looking for in the less inconspicuous of places, a black-haired boy was crying his guts out while he was being comforted by several of his friends at the fountain, Akiyama promptly advised his partner.

"Look over there, by the fountain, there's our grieving widow" Toru noted

"Alright, you know how to deal with grieving people right?" Ichiro asked

"I don't do it too often. You don't deal with many widows on burglary or traffic, although I've done it sometimes"

"And how it went?"

"I've gotten… Slapped…" Toru awkwardly said

With that, Ichiro did his best efforts to contain his laughter to not be insensitive, Toru had to give him a push so Ichiro could knock it off, so he drew his concealed pistol and nudged Suzuki in the back of his head with it, an action that obviously hurt.

"SONOFABITCH!" Was all that Ichiro said as he gave a step forwards and winced in pain

"So, are you going to be productive or you're going to stand there all day laughing at my mistakes? Get a grip on reality and move on, there's a killer on the loose" Akiyama smugly said as he holstered his weapon and moved towards the fountain, leaving Suzuki behind

"I swear, that kid sometimes gets on my nerves…" Ichiro muttered as he followed his partner

Both detectives carefully approached the central fountain, where the grieving boy was at, Ichiro and Toru had a glance exchange over who would talk to the grieving teenager, after a shrug from the older detective, he took a step forwards and kneeled in front of the kid.

"What's wrong son? Why are you shedding all these tears for?" The Detective Suzuki asked with concern as he placed a hand on the grieving teenager's knee

The teenager didn't respond, instead, his friend did. In this instance, a similar boy with black hair as well, albeit with a more muscular build and a martial arts bandana wrapped around his forehead.

"His best friend since childhood jumped from the roof today, he was the first to see the body from up close, and he's surely traumatized"

"I see… Son, look at me. Tell me, what's wrong? Do you think you did anything bad to her?" Ichiro asked, with a ton of care on his speech

The crying boy finally regained some of his composure and began to address the detective that was attempting to console him.

"I… I… I… I pissed her off rather frequently… *Sob* S-s-she was pretty much bad at me for little things… I-I-I… I never thought she would go this far over our petty arguments… *Sob* WHY?! WHY ME?!" The boy said before bursting back into tears

"Wow, at least you got him to talk a bit" A red-headed boy sitting opposite the more muscular kid said nonchalantly

"Why don't you show some care and scram kid? You're surely aren't doing any favors to him" Ichiro said, swiftly changing to his usual non-caring attitude

"And who are you to boss me around?"

"First kid: I'm older than you, so show me some respect. Secondly: I'm a police detective, so I can boss you around as much as I please. Understood? Or do you want me to sap you?" Suzuki said threateningly as he drew a tactical nightstick and put the badge on his belt on display

"O-oh… I got it. I'll be gone" The boy said, scared as all heck, any hint of a snarky attitude seemingly gone at the sight of the badge and the stick

"Yeah, you do as you do young punk… Now, kid, what if I told you that she didn't WANT to make the jump? Would it make you feel better?" Ichiro said as he holstered his melee weapon and took a seat besides the crying boy

"W-w-what?! Seriously?!" The bland-looking boy said, with a glint of hope in his eyes

"We have reasons to believe Osana… Got pushed off the rooftop in a cold-blooded murder, but hold your horses, we cannot confirm this, and to rule out the possibility of a suicide we need to ask you a couple of questions son… Are you feeling well to answer?"

After some pondering and sobbing, the boy finally answers.

"S-sure… I want to see how much guilt… I bear in this…"

"Okay then, Akiyama, get over here. The kid's ready" Suzuki said whilst gesturing to his partner to which he complied

Toru drew his notebook once again and made a quick sketch of the boy, then the interrogation began.

"Okay son, what's your name?"

"Taro… Taro Yamada" The boy said in his depressed state

"Seriously? There's actually people named like that?" Suzuki asked without a care in the world

"What about my name sir?" Taro asked dumbfounded

"Umm… Well, you see… In our job, your name is normally used to name an unidentified corpse. It's our variant of the American term 'John Doe', which has the same meaning" Akiyama explained

"Oh… I guess you learn something new every day…"

"Anyhow, Mr. Yamada, how close were you to the victim?" Toru asked

"Well, we are best friends since we were little kids, we saw each other grow, each other laugh, each other cry… It was a nice life…" Yamada explained, drifting off as he went down memory lane

"Okay, did Osana have any enemies on the school? A rival classmate who wanted to see her fall?"

"That was a bit insensitive on your side Akiyama" Ichiro piped up as Taro began to sob once again

"Sorry, I-I… I don't know what came across my mind to use that expression" Toru apologized

"It's not your fault detective… *Sob* Back to the subject, I never knew if she had enemies of any sort, she's friendly to everyone, not so much to me but, she is okay in my opinion"

"What do you mean with 'Not so much to me'? Did she get aggressive when in your company?"

"Yeah… A bit, she got defensive when we got to things like… High school romance and stuff" Taro explained as he fidgeted with his fingers

"Wow, a typical case of tsundere-ism right there" Ichiro said out of the blue

"What do you mean with that detective?" Yamada asked

"Son, are you a bit-too-much dense by chance? She was obviously in love with you! Question: Did she blush a lot when you two got to the high school romance thing?" Ichiro inquired

"She did get red when talking to me, but she said that it was due to the heat, that it wasn't blushing… Actually, your theory starts to make sense sir"

"Taro, did she confess to you?" Akiyama asked

"Osana?! Confessing to me?! Where did you get that idea?" Taro jumped in surprise

"Well, it's because we found a note allegedly written by Osana that said that she got heartbroken, possibly due to rejection. And considering you were her crush, we pinpointed you as a catalyst for the suicide, IF it was actually a suicide" Ichiro explained

"I do hope it isn't…" Yamada said in a downcast attitude

"You and me both kid, I need an arrest… Anyhow, answer my question please, it's pertinent to discard the suicide" Akiyama nonchalantly said

"Well, no, she didn't confess to me… Although, she was one of those people who believed in the myth of the cherry tree behind the school"

"Oh, I've heard about that one, the myth says that if you confess on a Friday evening underneath the tree your confession is guaranteed to be accepted. A load of childish bullshit if you ask me but, each one to its own" Suzuki explained only to add his nonchalant opinion at the end

"Okay… I think this is it, thank you very much for your cooperation Mr. Yamada, we'll make sure to get to the bottom of this, by the way. Have my phone number, just give me a call and I'll make sure to keep you updated on the latest about this unfortunate event, maybe you'll even get some peace of mind this way" Toru said as he gave Taro a business card with his name and phone number

"Thanks, detective… I-I I'll make sure to call you!" Yamada said nervously

"My pleasure kid… Let's get a move on shall we? We still have to requisition Najimi's bag" Toru said to the grieving boy and then to his partner

"Yeah, but after we requisition the bag we're outta here, we can check out its contents at central, otherwise the cap isn't gonna be very happy if we hang around here for longer" Ichiro said as he stood up, once again foreshadowing the fact that their careers are at risk the longer they stay at Akademi

"No, first we're checking out the contents of the bag, if we find more leads, we investigate some more, now, class 2-1, lead the way" Akiyama commanded

"Listen up here kid, I'm not gonna lose the job I've worked so hard to get for over twenty years over some rookie detective with grandeur delusions that has only been in the force for four years or so. I don't care if you've made a lot of progress in the case in such a short period of time, you're pushing our luck every second we stay in this damned school, if you want to keep wearing that suit you're gonna listen to what I have to say: WE. ARE. GOING. AWAY. WHEN. WE. PICK. THAT. BAG. Got it? Now move it" Ichiro refuted as he grabbed Toru by his shirt, before brusquely releasing him and walking off to their destination

"Fuck you… When I get a couple of months more in this desk, I'm working solo" Toru complained under his breath

And with that, the pair of detectives headed towards the classroom 2-1, to pick Osana Najimi's with a grudge they would need to bury before advancing further in the case.

* * *

No author's note this time… I'm drained…


	3. Stacked Jumper

_**Chapter Two: Stacked Jumper**_

* * *

The duo of detectives was already cueing their leave, much to Akiyama's dismay. They gave the bag to Hideo so he could examine its contents and do some calligraphy comparing between the farewell note and one of Najimi's notebooks. Ichiro spoke with the officer in charge of crowd control and told them to wait twenty-five minutes before giving the students the go-ahead to leave Akademi's premises as the coroner cleaned up Osana's impact site. But in the meantime, the detectives were leaving the school for the precinct to do some thinking. As they were approaching the car Akiyama decided to start a conversation, listen.

"So, what's your scope-out detective?" Toru asked Ichiro

"You know you can call me 'Senpai', right?" Ichiro snapped back

"And you know I learned to cringe at that title during all my years in Hawaii, right?"

"Why's that?"

"Plenty of Wapanese over there, they say it though they have no idea of what it means" Toru moaned as he placed both of his palms on his face in frustration before lazily letting them down to open the driver-side door with the key "Anyways, the question I asked?"

An audible pop of the car's locks was quickly followed by Ichiro answering and opening his door to get in.

"Well, the way I see it? This might be a passionate crime rather than a suicide" Ichiro deducted as he sat down, closed the door, and fastened his seatbelt

"Umm, why a passionate crime? I didn't see any possible heartbroken-and-murderous lovers around Osana. Unless you're implying Aishi's a lesbian" Akiyama pointed out as he started the car and closed his door

"Right, forget I said anything… But what if-"

"She's straight until proven otherwise Ichiro" Akiyama deadpanned as he fired up the car to get outta there

"I'm going to check in with Central…" Suzuki said as he turned the police scanner back on, grabbed the microphone and tuned into the BPF's frequency "Central, this is car 09-Satsujin-12, clocking out from Akademi High. Code 4 in that area for detectives, only black-and-whites cordoning right now. Heading back to HQ"

A short burst of static was followed by the male dispatcher replying.

"Roger 09-Satsujin-12. We'll update your status…"

Ichiro let the mic loose, only for it to fall into the floor.

"And that's it. Let's head for the precinct, I'd like to have some ramen from the machine in the briefing room" He said as he laid back on his seat and slightly reclined it

But before Toru could even nod to that request, the scanner had another burst of static, only for the female dispatcher to cut in.

"Attention all available units, we've got reports of an individual threatening to take a jump from the Saikou Department Store on the thirteenth block, please respond"

"We should take that call, it's only a block or three away" Akiyama suggested

"I guess the ramen will have to wait, dammit…" Both men remained in silence for a moment "Hey! It was your idea, so you call it in!"

"Oh, you lazy bastard…" Toru fetched the mic and cleaned it a bit before speaking into it "Car 09-Satsujin-12, count us in for that call, 10-6, code 3"

"10-4 09-Satsujin. Approach the scene with extreme caution, the suspect is being prevented from taking the jump by a woman and an off-duty fireman, use of reverse psychology is recommended"

"Telling people to do shit you don't want them to do? That's my specialty!" Ichiro joked

"Let me guess: Wife can't get sarcasm?" Akiyama sarcastically replied as he turned on the siren

"Bite me"

Akiyama chuckled before setting the car in first gear and punching the throttle to the metal and at the same time letting go of the clutch a bit for a burst of acceleration.

* * *

A few minutes later they were at the department store, Where they were greeted by the sight of a crowd of snoopers taking a peek at the commotion happening on the roof. The detectives quickly pulled over and got down, paying no mind to the fact they left their car running and announced their arrival as quickly as they could.

"Buraza Police, what seems to be the problem?" Suzuki said somewhat sarcastically as he flashed his badge along with Toru

"The problem is that the person on top of the Saikou logo wants to splatter their brains all over the parking lot, genius" A bystander quickly snapped back, with obvious venom on the reply

"Well, that's our cue, I'll take the fire ladder" Toru quickly said as he stored his badge and began a dash to the fire ladder on the front of the building

"I'm too old for that crap, I'll take the elevator" Ichiro said as he jogged inside the store searching for an elevator that would take him to the rooftop

The Detective Akiyama quickly began to climb the emergency stairwell as fast as he could, and as he neared the top he heard the commotion happening at the end.

"Man! Don't do it! You'll only leave a mess behind for those who love you!" A man, likely the off-duty fireman, said

"NO-ONE GIVES A DAMN ABOUT ME!" A woman, likely the jumper, screamed at the heavens

"I do care about you Maki! I love you! Please get down from there!" Another woman screamed, although just loud enough for Akiyama to hear

"AND LIKE I WANT YOU TO CARE YOU LESBO BITCH!"

 _Oof, that must've hurt for the broad that fell in love with her._ Akiyama thought to himself

"Come on lady! Don't take the jump! You still have plenty to do in this world! I mean, just look at you! How old are you even?" The fireman asked

"I'M 24, WITH A DEAD-END JOB ON A SHITTY STORE, A GODDAMN STALKER OF THE SAME GENDER, NO CHILDREN WHATSOEVER, A COUPLE OF ASSHOLES FOR PARENTS, AND CRIPPLING DEPRESSION! WHY THE HELL DO YOU THINK I HAVE ANYTHING USEFUL TO DO IN THIS WORLD?!" Maki screamed, deprecating herself even further

"Sweetie! But all of that can be fixed! I can help you with your job! We can get together and adopt! And I can help you out with your depression! Forget about your parents! All you need to live is me!" The stalker screamed at Maki, trying to make her get her marbles together

"OH PLEASE DO SHUT THE FUCK UP! LIKE I WANT TO RUB MY PUSSY WITH YOURS! FILTHY SCUM! WHY DON'T YOU GO TO FUCKING AMERICA OR SOME PLACE WHERE YOUR KIND IS WELCOME?! OH, BETTER YET! SHOOT YOURSELF!"

As the commotion unfolded, Akiyama got to the rooftop and was already sneaking his way to the Saikou logo, which stood tall with Maki on top, the aforementioned was a woman that stood at a meter seventy-three, c-cup breasts, short dark purple hair cut into a somewhat boyish Bob, and makeup running all over her cheeks due to crying, revealing some really baggy eyes. She was dressed on the standard Saikou Department Store female clerk uniform, a short, black, frilly skirt with a couple of red details coupled to a black polo shirt with red accents with a name tag on it. As Akiyama made his way to the logo and began climbing one of the sides, Ichiro arrived at the rooftop.

"Buraza Police people, I'm here to take care of this situation, stand back…" Suzuki said as he flashed his badge to the fireman and the stalker before facing Maki "Hey miss! What're you doing up there?!"

"WHAT THE FUCK DO YOU THINK I'M DOING?! I FUCKING ENDING THIS SHOW!" Maki angrily replied

"Show? What show? Is there someone recording? Am I gonna be featured?" Ichiro fooled around as he mockingly looked around and saved his badge

"WHAT?! ARE YOU REALLY THIS STUPID?!"

"You mean there aren't TV people around here...?" He then took a good look at Maki, and then changed his expression a bit to look surprised "Oh! Am I in presence of a suicidal jumper?"

"DAMN FUCKING RIGHT YOU ARE! AND I WILL DO IT!"

"Well… Make sure you do a backflip as you jump! It's the coolest way to go!" Ichiro gave the woman a thumbs up as he said that

"WHAT?! HOW CAN YOU SAY THAT TO POOR DEAR MAKI?!" Maki's crazy lover screamed at Suzuki angrily

"Wow miss, calm down, he's just using reverse psychology to distract her as his partner sneaks behind her" The fireman restrained the stray lover as he explained Ichiro's methodology

"Wow! Is this crazy woman in love with you? Don't tell me you're going to give her the pleasure to see you living"

"EXACTLY…! Wait, what?" Maki suddenly changed her tone and looked confused, at this time Akiyama was just at an arm's length

"You see, I like to think that anything that might motivate a lesbian to pursue to get out of the closet should be destroyed! And seeing as you turned this one lesbo here on, taking the jump might be the best thing! Who knows, she might be next in line…!" Ichiro babbled about for a second before Akiyama was even closer "TORU! NOW!"

And in that exact moment, Toru got up and jumped the woman in danger, grabbing her by her feet and then pushing her at Ichiro's way, where he swiftly caught her after a dead sprint, he then placed her on the ground and handcuffed her. Akiyama quickly got down and directed some kind words at the woman.

"Lady…" He sighed before flatly saying: "You're a danger to yourself, and to others"

"Sweetie! Are you okay?!" Her lover screamed from afar, still trying to break free from the fireman's grasp

"Please, just get that freak away from me and I promise I will never try this again" Maki said in desperation

"Maybe we can move some people to get a restraining order… That's if you're okay with it" Suzuki suggested

"Please do, she's been the one driving my life downhill"

"And who is she even?" Toru asked out of the blue

"Argh, this is the hardest part… She's my cousin, Miki" Maki admitted with difficulty

"Holy shit… Incest AND homosexuality" Ichiro said under his breath

Toru just laughed at Suzuki's comment as he approached Miki, handcuffed her, and gestured him to take Maki to their car whilst they waited for a few squad cars to arrive so take both women could be taken in for processing.

* * *

A couple of minutes, two cups of coffee, and five Croissants on Ichiro's end, several black-and-whites plus a police transporter arrived at the Department Store.

"Officer Amano! Buraza Police! Somebody called for prisoner transport?" A female officer who was driving the Police Van asked as she stepped down

"Over here!" Toru swiftly replied "Detectives Akiyama and Suzuki, Homicide squad. We were leaving Akademi High when the call was made so we responded"

"Ah, I heard about what happened at Akademi, suicide jumper as we figured. But it looks like you guys did manage to save this one" She answered as she signaled her partner to rush to the apprehended women on the detective's car

"For now, I've ruled out the suicide theory, there are many things that don't fit the bill" Akiyama added before veering his sight to the policeman taking the women out of their car "Hey you! Purple hair goes on a squad car and the other goes on the van. Got it?"

Akiyama's last comment was received with a nod, but the former was received with some doubt by the uniformed unit.

"Uh-huh… So in your opinion, it was a murder? How can you sustain that theory?" She asked, trying to get as much information about the current case as possible

"I mean, judging by the crowd on the rooftop, the way the kiddo fell, and the childhood friend's statement. The possibility of an actual suicide is slim at best" Ichiro interjected, tired of being ignored

"True that. But who gave Najimi the push?" His partner added

"Hey, you being Kimihito Akiyama's son? I think I know who you're gonna lay the blame upon"

"Look, I won't be like my father, so I won't lay the blame on Aishi's daughter unless the evidence points at her"

"Wow, you guys mean like: Ryoba Aishi's daughter?" Officer Amano's partner inquired as he pushed Miki on the back of the police van

"Yuppity! Ayano is that girl's name" Ichiro answered in a somewhat chipper manner

"Guys, by all means, avoid laying the blame on her, the force doesn't need another Aishi scandal" Amano interjected

"So you guys know about it? You all smell like deputies who just got a promotion" Suzuki said nonchalantly

"Hey, I've been on the streets for over four years, he's the fresh meat. But either way, it becomes our duty to know about the department's history, one way or another" The female officer defended herself

"Had to figure the captains would be telling the new recruits about this. It's an ugly stain in our reputation" Akiyama opined

"Hey, at least we aren't China's secret police~!" Amano playfully said as she started walking towards Maki to place her on a nearby squad car

"May the gods be praised for giving us such a blessing~!" Ichiro joked as he extended his arms up in the air

"Hahaha~! You guys can leave now I suppose, we'll take care of this" Officer Amano's partner said before once again poking out from the van to speak to the detectives "Oh! And make sure to stop by the precinct ASAP! Our captain and likely yours would like to have a statement, likely a written one"

"I can feel the lukewarm beer on my throat and hear the flies haunting my Maki rolls already" Suzuki bemoaned

"Normal police procedure partner, just normal procedure… Hey, isn't it funny that the Jumper's name is also shared with the Maki rolls?" Akiyama pointed out

"Wait… You almost made a joke there son!" Suzuki jokingly replied as he patted Toru's back

"Very funny old shmuck, let's just get back to the precinct. You wanted some ramen didn't you?"

"Finally you remembered something actually important!"

The duo of detectives walked back to their car, only to find the scanner frantically sounding.

"Car 09-Satsujin-12, 09-Satsujin come in. We've got an urgent message from coroner Hideo from the Tokyo morgue"

"Well, pick that shit up son! It's important!" That's all Ichiro managed to say

Toru rushed to the driver's seat and immediately picked up the microphone and spoke in.

"Central, this is car 09-Satsujin-12, can you read the message to me?"

"Sure, it says: 'Something disastrous has occurred, call me at 0XXX-XXXXXX as soon as possible. It's pertinent to the Najimi suicide'… May I dial the phone number in for you?"

"Sure Central, please do"

"Hold on a moment…"

After that, there was silence, followed by four audible beeps, meaning that Hideo's phone was ringing, and at the fifth beep, he answered…

"Hello? Who is this?" Hideo said from the other end of the line

"Let me have it, kid…" Ichiro stepped in as he grabbed the microphone from Toru's grasp and spoke into it "Hideo, it's Ichiro. You said something happened and that it was related to the Najimi suicide. Can you please tell us what exactly happened now?"

"You guys are _not_ going to like this…" An audible sigh was heard "Ummm… I better go straight up with this: You guys remember all the possible evidence you guys collected at Akademi? Well, according to a friend of mine in technical services… It has disappeared without a trace"

This prompted a loud reaction from both detectives.

" _ **WHAT IN THE WORLD?!"**_

* * *

 **La Nota:** **You fellas thought this story was dead? Well, not quite yet.**


	4. No closure for this case

_**Chapter three: No closure for this case.**_

* * *

Do you know what's uncommon during police work? That a bunch of evidence disappears off technical services' hands. However, when a case had a mid-high priority on the Buraza Police there was always this slim possibility of a rotten apple vanishing the most important of evidence on the case, I guess that's exactly what happened on Toru's first murder case. Whenever an Aishi was somewhat involved in a case, even as a witness, some strange shits tended to happen behind the scenes. I suppose those damn Aishis had some pretty damn good people looking out for them up top.

* * *

 **Saikou Department Store parking lot, Commercial Buraza; 4:07 P.M**

" _ **WHAT IN THE WORLD?!"**_ That was all the detectives managed to spout over the fact that all the evidence they collected over the current case had gone missing

"I had a feeling you guys would react that way…" The coroner, Hideo, meekly responded over the phone

"What do you mean _ALL_ the possible evidence we have collected so far has gone missing?! Who is this contact of yours in technical services?!" Akiyama angrily said over the radio, that was patched into Hideo's phone thanks to a dispatcher

"The Chief Technician, Satsuke Ouya. Look, I know you guys are disappointed about this…" All the detectives managed to do was sigh to the fact, the Chief Technician wasn't a guy who would lie and hide some important evidence "But, I've got good news: Not all evidence was lost. I, accidentally, left a small piece of possible evidence on my pockets, the only things that were lost were the objects were turned to technical services, such as Najimi's shoes and bag"

"Look, it'll only be good news if you tell us what exactly you managed to keep Hideo" Ichiro deadpanned, obviously not being optimistic

"Oh, I'm sure it will be regarded as great news… I managed to keep the suicide note, I'm currently scanning it to make digital copies and send one over email to the Detective Akiyama" Hideo claimed victoriously

The duo of detectives cheered upon processing Hideo's information, if a farewell note is left after a suicide, it is regarded as the most important piece of evidence on the investigation, be it to confirm it was a suicide or to discard the theory.

"That's great news coroner! Make as many copies as you can and send one to my private email address. Better to be safe than sorry" Akiyama instructed over the microphone, that was being held by Ichiro at this time

"Send me one too Hideo, make your pick between my registered addresses" Suzuki added to the instructions

"Got it… Also, I ran the note for fingerprints and DNA…" The detectives were excited to get informed about the results, it could be crucial for the investigation… "And all I found were Toru's fingerprints and my sweat, I also found a foreign fingerprint, but it was too blurry to be recognized by the database, it suppose it's Najimi's" Or maybe not

"I see… How's the autopsy coming along?" Ichiro asked, a bit disappointed by the previous information

"Well, so far it's all I said at the crime scene, severed jugular due to a neck snapping. In addition to very blunt head trauma, obviously due to the impact. Had she not died because of the snapped neck, Najimi would likely be on a very deep coma right now. Mind you, I haven't run the body for fingerprints or foreign DNA yet, so more surprises might be underway" Hideo debriefed the detectives of his findings so far

"Thanks for sharing Hideo, all of this is very useful" Toru thanked the coroner who was just doing his best job

"No problem! Just doing the job I love and get paid for!" Hideo says in a chipper attitude over the phone before hanging up

The detectives took a moment to relax and think over their next step, they didn't have any evidence that could point out in the direction of a possible suspect at the time. But one thing was for sure, this didn't look like a suicide.

"So, what now?" Toru asked his partner

"Well, we can't do Jack shit until Hideo sends us copies of the farewell note, or finishes the autopsy of Osana. So, my best bet? Let's go back to the precinct to think things over some more, and to get some ramen for the gods sake! I'm starving here!" Ichiro answered and pleaded for food

"Alright, alright…" Toru said a bit down before he fastened his seatbelt, and started up the engine "Let's go"

With that, both detectives parted to the station.

* * *

 **Homicide briefing room, Buraza Police Precinct, Downtown Buraza; 6:19 P.M**

Two hours and a little bit more had passed since Toru and Ichiro had last spoken with Hideo, and they had yet to receive their copies of the farewell note that Osana Najimi allegedly left prior to her 'suicide' at Akademi High this morning. Both detectives were concerned, but in the meantime they had to fill out their written statements about the botched suicide attempt at the Saikou Department Store this afternoon over a cup of ramen (Alright, let's be honest, only Ichiro Suzuki could've liked the piece of shit for ramen that was sold at the vending machine on the homicide briefing room).

"Perhaps one thing I hate about my job," Ichiro said over a mouthful of sushi before swallowing it "Writing reports. I mean, aren't our verbal declarations enough? If they still want to waste paper, then why not look for a transcriber?" He complained as he was writing and before he took another bit of ramen from the noodle cup

"Hey, this is made so we can defend ourselves if anyone involved wants to sue our asses in court Suzuki, be grateful that this is mandatory" Toru sneered as he took a bit of corrector ink in and splashed it over a typo with a brush

"Oh yeah, I gotta be grateful for a sore wrist and a throbbing index finger. Yeah, I'm very much grateful for this" Suzuki sarcastically said as he shook his left hand with a pencil in hand, obviously trying to shake off some pain

 **TI-LING!** A phone went off, signaling a notification

"Whose phone was that?" A fellow detective asked

"Mine" Toru blandly answered as be drew his phone out of his blazer's pocket to see the notification on the lock screen

* * *

SaikouMail – 6:22 P.M

Najimi Osana's farewell letter

* * *

"Finally Hideo" Akiyama muttered as he touched the notification and unlocked his phone to see the full mail

* * *

 _Hi there Toru! This is Hideo! I'm sorry I wasn't able to send this thing to you sooner, but the quality of the image after scanning was poor at first and the calligraphy wasn't very readable and added to the fact that I'm scrambling to get Najimi's autopsy through that door helped to the delay, I had to tweak the scanner whilst I was extracting some interesting stuff off Najimi's corpse, can you believe it? But now it doesn't matter because you have the letter now, and I can go back to finishing the tests on Najimi! I will call you soon with news okay? In the meantime, bye!_

 _Cheers and luv, Yamamoto Hideo, veteran Coroner at the Central Tokyo Morgue._

Attached files: – - 2.1 MB

* * *

Toru scrambled to download the picture immediately, opened to check out the quality of the picture (which was indeed a high-quality scanning), and then reflected upon Hideo's very peculiar way of composing emails for a few seconds.

 _I mean, if I didn't know it's him I would guess I'm talking to a Genki high schooler girl from an anime._ Toru thought to himself

 **TI-LING-NING-NING!** Another phone sounded due to a notification arriving, but this time it was a sound that was ancient

When the notification quieted, Ichiro pulled his phone from his pants' pocket and guess what? Suzuki pretty much had the oldest phone in the room, a Saikou Phone from before Saikou Corp got their crap together and improved an American design with Japanese sophistication. Featuring a design from the early days of the slate factor (In other words: square as fuck), hard keys underneath a touchscreen, and a hard QWERTY keyboard that slid out. Ichiro started up the phone, seemingly opened the email app and then he faced Toru.

"Akiyama! Hideo finally sent me the victim's farewell note, what about you?" Suzuki announced and then inquired

"Got it before you, the notification I got was an email from Hideo. I downloaded the picture already" Toru said as he swiped down on an app

"So, now we got the farewell letter, but not a sample of Osana's calligraphy to compare. What are we going to do?"

"I know a person who can help us out"

"Whom?" Ichiro asked, a bit confused

"This person" Akiyama said before turning his phone's screen to Suzuki, where the contacts app was on display

* * *

Yamada Taro (Najimi Osana's Childhood friend)

Mobile – 0XXX – XXXXXX

* * *

"Where did you get the kid's number?'

"Remember when I gave him mine over at Akademi? Well, he called me at about 5:30 asking how the investigation was doing, and told him the whole truth" Akiyama elaborated as he hit the 'Call' button and placed his phone's earpiece on his ear

"Even the missing evidence stuff?" Suzuki asked concerned

"Yes, why?"

"You idiot, you shouldn't tell a person close to the victim that we're having a rough time investigating this shit! It will just make them feel bad!"

"Shut up, the phone's ringing" Akiyama held up his hand as he bossed his senior around

Two beeps, three beeps... Six beeps…

"Come on kid, pick it up…" Toru muttered under his breath

Seven beeps, eight beeps…

And then a runny nose sounded on the other end of the line.

"Uhhh… Hello? Who Is this?"

"Am I speaking with Mr. Taro Yamada?" Toru asked warily

"Yes? Please be quick, I am currently in mourning" He blandly said before sniffing

"Well, Mr. Yamada, It's Detective Akiyama from the Buraza Police? I'm currently investigating the apparent suicide of Osana Najimi? Your recently deceased friend?"

"Ah yes, the Detective… How are things going? Did you recover the missing evidence?"

"Well, not fully. But we have an important piece of possible evidence that we would like you to certify as authentic" Akiyama was being rightfully honest, something not common among cops who usually sweet-talk people

"What exactly is it? And why do I need to certify it as authentic? Aren't out there experts for that?" Yamada asked, genuinely curious

"It's Osana's alleged farewell letter, we need to analyze the calligraphy in order to see if Najimi actually wrote it or not. And seeing as her book bag got lost, we thought the closest person to her should be able to find out whether it's genuinely from Osana or if it was forged and then planted"

"I see… Do I have to go to the station?"

"No need for that, if you can provide your address we can go over your residence and not cause too much bother, after all, you are a young man mourning the loss of a dear friend" Toru said as he scrambled for a piece of paper and a pen to write down the address

"Sure… I live two blocks north of Akademi High, on the tenth block, house 132, do you know where that is Detective?"

"Sure… Don't worry…" Akiyama slowly said as he wrote over the address "Mind repeating the house number?"

"132" Taro blandly answered over the phone

"One… Three… Two… Got it, we'll over there soon"

"I hope I can get some closure out of this…"

"Don't worry sir, I am sure you will…" Akiyama reassured before hanging up "Alright, we got the note, someone to verify it's authentic, and their address. All we have to do is go there and let the kid do his best to remember his fallen friend's calligraphy"

"That was a low joke Toru" Suzuki deadpanned

"What was low?"

"The fallen friend thing, you remember the poor girl fell from a rooftop, right?"

"Ouch… Honestly, I forgot"

"You're an insensitive detective, you know that Toru?" Ichiro remarked

"I said I'm sorry for that!" And Toru just defended himself

They would be talking about this for ages until they got to the Yamada residence, that's for damn sure.

* * *

 **Yamada Residence, Residential Buraza; 6:42 P.M**

The duo of detectives eventually arrived at the Yamada Residence, they parked up in front of the house, shut off their vehicle and got down, with Akiyama leading the way. The Yamada house wasn't something flashy, in fact, you could say it was a particularly generic-looking two-story house. Akiyama, with Suzuki in tow, helped himself to the entrance and knocked the door thrice, after a few seconds, a girl who could easily be a middle-schooler opened the door.

"Uhhh… May I help you misters?" The girl asked, confused

Toru simply drew his badge, then he spoke.

"Buraza Police sweetie, Detectives Akiyama and Suzuki. We need to speak with Taro Yamada, is he home?"

"Wait, you guys are here to arrest big brother?! I can rest assure you he did nothing wrong!" The Young girl started to freak out, obviously not getting the objective of the Detectives' visit

"Ma'am, please calm down. We're definitely not here to arrest Mr. Yamada, we're here because he's simply a person of interest in a murder investigation" Akiyama tried to reassure, triggering more confusion from the girl

"What?! Who died?!"

"Ummm, are you familiar with the name 'Osana Najimi'? Girl?"

"WHAT?! BIG SISTER OSANA IS DEAD?!" The girl screamed in panic

All Akiyama and his partner could do was give a nod in confirmation.

"Oh my God… Oh my God…" She simply clutched her head in shock, obviously not being able to cope with the information, but after a few seconds she simply sighed and signaled the detectives to come in "Please come in, I'll go get big brother, I guess this was the reason why he was so down after school today…"

The detectives complied with the request and made themselves comfortable, Toru and Ichiro took a seat in a reasonably-sized couch in the living room. As another revelation, the Yamada house was as flashy on the inside as it was on the outside, by that I mean that it was bland and generic as heck. Patterned wooden floor, pastel-colored walls with white accents, and matching furniture to boot, it was cozy, to say the least. But nothing particularly stood out.

After a solid minute, Taro came down the stairwell. He was still wearing the Akademi High School uniform, I guess the depression got the best of him.

"Mr. Yamada, glad to see you once again" Akiyama said as warmly as he could, trying to lift Taro's spirits a bit

Yamada simply plopped down on a recliner chair across the couch and activated it.

"Sure Detective, if you're glad to see me, then I'm glad as well" Yamada said blandly and virtually emotionlessly

"Alright son, let's just cut through the chase. I know this is putting a heavy load on you and we're also running scarce on time, I just got a question: How well do you know Osana's calligraphy and writing style?" Suzuki chimed in, trying to hurry things up

"Pretty well I would say, we grew together after all and we used to spend hours at a day writing random things on papers when we were little…"

"Well, in that case…" Toru took his phone out of his blazer's pocket once more, opened the gallery app, put the scanned copy of Osana's farewell note on display, and extended the phone to Taro "I want you to see this letter, and tell me if you think Osana wrote it"

Taro nervously grabbed the phone and looked at the screen's contents, after a couple of dozen seconds he started making all sorts of expressions, most of them denoted confusion, and Akiyama got wind of it.

"Mr. Yamada, Is there something wrong?"

"Well, perhaps one thing detective" He then turned the phone so the screen faced the detectives and pointed at it with a finger "While this sounds like something Osana would write in one of her tsun-tsun episodes, the calligraphy is completely different of how Osana writes"

"Mind proving it son?" Suzuki challenged out of the blue

"Sure, be right back"

With that, Taro got up, handed Akiyama's phone, and headed up the stairs, and after two minutes he came back disassembling a framed photo, which he handed over to the detectives. The picture was simple yet wholesome: Osana having a piggy-back ride on top of Taro at a fun fair, likely at Shisuta Town's carnival.

"Well, while this is cute and it melts my heart, but what does this have to do with what I asked?" Suzuki deadpanned

"Look at the reverse detectives, there is a note there" Taro blankly claimed as he made a 'spin It around' gesture

Toru turned the picture around and, unsurprisingly, there it was, a note that read:

* * *

 _Well baka, I can't believe it. You actually know how to have a good time! I enjoyed myself at the carnival, but don't think this is getting you any closer to me. But as a proof of my gratitude for the fond memories, have this picture father took with his camera, pretty cool isn't it?_

 _Eternally grateful, your best and virtually only friend; Osana._

 _12 of March of 2014._

* * *

Whilst the content of the note was irrelevant to the investigation, the calligraphy wasn't. Osana's calligraphy looked aggressive yet cute at the same time, whilst the farewell note's calligraphy was bland, generic and without any sort of passion invested into it, as Yamada said, there is absolutely no way that Najimi wrote the farewell letter. It was definitely forged and planted in place to make it appear like a suicide rather than what it actually is: A cold-blooded murder.

"This… This doesn't match at all" Toru stated in awe

"No way in hell Najimi wrote this. The calligraphy doesn't match, and I'm pretty sure people don't give their calligraphies full makeovers in just two years. Trust me, I tried that" Ichiro claimed as his eyesight went back and forth between the image on Toru's phone and the note in the back of the picture

"I have to take a picture of this, it's vital evidence to back the claims I am now going to make" Toru said before closing the gallery app and opening the camera app to take a picture of the note, now a vital piece of evidence

"Glad I could be of help, it's what Osana would have wanted" Taro said before drifting off

As the detectives kept analyzing the new evidence they had, the main door to the house was opened, and through the threshold, four people walked in, two of which were either down, or crying.

"I know… I know… It hurts losing a child like this, I would be in the same place if I lost either Hanako or Taro…" A woman of dark, long hair said, comforting another woman, who was crying her guts out before noticing the detectives "Hey! Can either of you explain why are you in my house alone with my children?"

"Hey woman, no need to freak out, Buraza Police Detectives Suzuki and Akiyama, we're investigating the murder of Osana Najimi, is this your son?" Ichiro answered before pointing at Taro

"Yes, why?"

"I would just like to say that he's a great boy who has been cooperative all along with the investigation, and that has helped in ways we wouldn't have even imagined"

"Wait a second… Wasn't Osana's demise a suicide? That's what the preliminary report told these two" Taro's mother inquired as she pointed at the other two adults that were visibly tired and sad

"Well, ma'am, we have news, whether they're good or bad is up to you…" Akiyama then cleared his throat "Osana did _not_ commit suicide, she was murdered in a way that _would_ _look_ like a suicide. And the farewell note left on the scene that was allegedly written by Osana? It was forged. The calligraphy on the note doesn't match with Osana's genuine calligraphy. This added to the way she fell, and the fact that Osana screamed when she fell off the roof of Akademi, rules out the possibility of a suicide" Akiyama elaborated, leaving Osana's parents flabbergasted

"This means… Osana didn't want to die?" The sad man alongside Taro's father asked

"Not at all sir, someone deprived her of her life" Suzuki chimed in, trying to reassure the parent

In the blink of an eye, the woman that was previously being comforted by Taro's mother rushed to the detectives, grabbed Akiyama's hands, and held them together with hers.

"Please detectives… I beg you… Find who did this to Osana… _**And make them pay**_ " The woman said with teary eyes between jobs, and with extra emphasis on the last phrase

"Ma'am, justice for your daughter might not come in the next few hours, but I assure you, that it will come real soon, I promise" Akiyama tried to comfort the woman, who simply nodded, and then a smile crept on her face

"Thank you, detective… Thank you so much for doing this for me…"

"Ma'am, I am sorry to say this, but I am not doing this for you… I am doing this for Osana. Even though I never met her, I am pretty sure that such a young, promising woman shouldn't have died like that" Toru said with bravery as he freed his hands from the grasp of the woman

"People, this is very touching and all. But I am pretty sure that this is the best moment for us to leave. After all, Toru and I only have a little more than an hour to bring closure to this case" Suzuki chimed in, breaking the mood with the cold, hard reality

"That's right, we must go" Akiyama then faced Taro "Thanks kid, for everything"

Taro shed a tear and then replied.

"Everything for Osana"

With that, the detectives cued their leave from the Yamada household and headed for their car, and as they were getting inside…

" _ **And this is what I found!~ Way back in Chinatown!~ Ah Ling Ting Tong, gotta sing this song! Ay sum onko bundam yey, ay sum onko-um**_ " A phone began to ring, and it wasn't on Akiyama's pockets so…

"Huh, _The Five Keys_ Ichiro?" Toru jokingly said as he took a seat on the car

Ichiro just huffed as he retrieved his phone to see who the caller was before sitting.

"Hey, it's Hideo, I'll put him on speakerphone" Suzuki then picked up and put the call on the speaker "Hideo, I got you on speakerphone so Toru can hear"

"Hi there Hideo, what's the good word?" Akiyama asked the coroner through the phone

"Alright! It's time for the news! Look, guys, I wrapped up Osana Najimi's autopsy about a few minutes ago, and you guys won't believe what I found…"

"Hit us with it Hideo" Ichiro said defiantly as he closed his door shut

"I found foreign sweat in Osana's stockings and thighs, and when I ran the tests against the database I was in for a shock! Want to know why?"

"Hideo, we're _not_ in the mood for suspense right now! We've got less than an hour to wrap this case up dammit" Toru snapped, tired of Hideo's attempts at suspense

"The computer came back with Ryoba Aishi's DNA as a possible match, with a 50 percent of matching probability, which means…" Hideo tried to explain, before being cut short by Toru

"It must definitely be from her offspring…" Akiyama completed

"Exactly! Now, when I ran the body for foreign fingerprints I found a set on the thighs, I ran it against the database and guess who came up as a match? Ayano Aishi. Ryoba's only daughter" Hideo revealed, much to the detectives' anger

Toru slammed his door shut in frustration.

"The bitch! She gave us a false statement on the rooftop!" Suzuki angrily said as he smashed the dashboard

"My advice guys? Bring her in for questioning, then face her with all of this. I'll send over the results of the autopsy by fax to the station and over to both of you by email. Good luck" Hideo advised before hanging up

The detectives just stood there, frozen for a few seconds. Ayano had played them like a fucking piano, she deliberately lied to them and withheld information from the police in order to save her neck, but now? She had nowhere to hide. No excuses, no alibi, no nothing, she was caught right on the money. And the detectives were coming back in full force.

"Ask for the address of the Aishi Residence and a capture order for Ayano, we're bringing that little bitch in one way or another" Toru said full of rage as he started up the car and began to rev the engine

"Central, this is car 09-Satsujin-12 requesting the address of the Aishi Residence, and before you ask, yes, _that_ Aishi Residence" Ichiro complied and called in the request

"Umm, sure… House 298, eleventh block… Is everything okay 09-Satsujin? Over"

"Oh, everything's _not_ okay Central, we were seen idiots' faces and a suspect slipped right under our noses. Oh, also pass a request to the local court for a capture order for Ayano Aishi in relation to the murder of Osana Najimi, over and out" Ichiro then turned to Toru "Let's get that bitch before she kills anyone else or it gets away"

Akiyama simply put the car in motion with a burnout and a 180 turn with the sirens on.

* * *

 **Aishi Residence, Residential Buraza; 6:58 P.M**

The Detectives' vehicle came to a screeching halt on the wet pavement in front of the house, on their way to the Aishi house a thunderstorm suddenly began, but that didn't stop Akiyama from driving like a man racing out of hell. The Aishi Residence looked like any other house on the street, there wasn't anything that made it stand out, except for this very uneasy aura that surrounded the house, and that accentuated itself even more with the thunderstorm. At this time all lights at the house were out for some reason, excepting one lonely window being lit by a light bulb in the room behind it on the second floor. The detectives hastily got down from the vehicle in the torrential rain.

"Akiyama! Go around the back whilst I go through the front entrance! Better to be safe than sorry!" Suzuki screamed in the middle of the rain

"Nah Ichiro! I'll take the front door! You go around the back! You're bigger and heavier than I am! So you'll do a better job blocking her way if she tries to escape!" Akiyama replied in the same fashion, refuting Suzuki's order and proposing something else

"Good idea! But hold on a second…!" Ichiro quickly retreated back to the car and pulled something out of the glovebox, the objects in question were a couple of two-way radios, one of which he gave to Toru "Take this! This will keep us in touch!"

"Thanks! But where did you get these?"

"Doesn't matter! Just take position!"

With that, Suzuki scrambled to find the house's back door, whilst Akiyama positioned himself on the front door, ready to knock it, but he had to wait for a couple of seconds so Ichiro could be in position. After a little more than ten seconds and a thunder later, the radio he was given started to sound.

"Akiyama? Akiyama, can you hear me? Akiyama come in" Ichiro's voice resounded through the speaker of the radio

"10-4, loud and clear Suzuki, are you in position?" Toru asked

"Affirmative, knock the door"

Toru then began to strongly knock the door, making sure the knocking would be heard throughout the house.

"BURAZA POLICE! OPEN THE DOOR IMMEDIATELY!" Toru screamed as loud as he could

Toru continued knocking for a solid minute and no-one had come to open the door. Akiyama was soaked down to the socks and he wanted in as soon as possible, he screamed one more time.

"IF YOU THINK YOU CAN AVOID THE POLICE BY SIMPLY NOT SHOWING UP YOU ARE VERY MISTAKEN! WE HAVE ALL NIGHT CITIZEN!"

After a couple of dozen seconds, he was starting to get tired of this, he was about to scream one more time until…

 **CLICK! CLICK!** The locks on the door began to be undone, and then it opened to show Ayano Aishi, wearing her pajamas, rubbing her eyes and seemingly just awakened.

"Ahhhhh…" She yawned whilst rubbing her eyes "Detective, you better have a good reason to be here…"

"Ayano Aishi?" Toru blankly asked

"Uh, yes?"

"Ayano Aishi, you're under arrest in connection to the murder of Osana Najimi, you have the right to remain silent. Anything you might say and do will be used against you in a court of the law, yet you are innocent until proven otherwise, have you understood your rights as an arrested individual?" Akiyama told Ayano her rights as if he just read them off a book

Aishi just stood there with a blank face for a solid five seconds… And then she tried to run away.

"HEY! STOP! YOU'RE ONLY MAKING THIS WORSE FOR YOURSELF!" Toru said as he began to run after her "Suzuki! Suzuki! She's coming your way! Be ready!" Akiyama spoke through the radio, getting his message across to Ichiro

"Roger that!" That's all the older detective managed to say in response

Ayano was on a dead sprint, headed for the back door of her house with Akiyama chasing her closely, she was throwing all kinds of things on Akiyama's way to slow him down, only for him to gracefully avoid and jump over every obstacle, when Ayano reached the back door she briefly looked back as she opened it and then…

 **TZZZZZT-ZZZZZZZZZZZT** That was the sound of Ichiro's Taser when it contacted with Ayano's skin.

Stunned and now convulsing due to the voltage, Aishi eventually plopped down to the floor, where Akiyama promptly handcuffed her.

"You're in serious trouble now Aishi…" Toru told to the defeated girl laying on the floor before looking at Ichiro "Great job partner, couldn't have done it without you"

"Nothing to thank me for Akiyama, just doing my job" Ichiro nonchalantly replied

Toru eventually lifted up Ayano and placed her on one of the couches on the living room, he then directed a couple of words to the handcuffed young lady.

"Seeing as you attempted to resist arrest Ayano, we are going to take the liberty to go over your house and ask you some questions. Do you receive?"

Ayano just looked blankly at the detective, as if trying to see through him.

"I'll take it as a yes…" Akiyama then signaled his partner to go over the house as he drew his notebook from his blazer along with a pen and then dried it a little to write on it "Now Ayano. Why did you think resisting arrest was a good idea?"

Ayano just remained silent.

"Come on Ayano, answer the question"

"You said I had the right to remain silent, and that is a right I am now sticking with" Aishi snapped back

"Well, whilst that might be your right, withholding information from the police is a serious criminal offense Aishi! Don't you think you have enough problems as it is? Connection to a murder that was attempted to be passed as a suicide, resisting arrest, and now withholding information! I don't think the judge is going to give you any less than ten years Ayano" Akiyama pushed, trying to break through Aishi's tough façade

"Either way, how can you link me to a murder investigation detective? And what are you even talking about?"

"Oh Aishi, don't play dumb, you know exactly what I am talking about, and I can prove it"

"Go ahead detective, prove your point" Ayano said defiantly

"I am talking about Osana Najimi's murder Aishi! You know that better than anyone! You were at Akademi High's rooftop at the exact time when Osana died! Don't play the role of the ignorant Ayano, it doesn't suit you at all" Toru lashed out at the tough girl

"Wow, detective, hold it right there. That was a suicide, everyone knows that"

"That's where you are wrong Ayano! You see, the way Osana fell, added to the fact that she screamed when she fell, plus the fact that the farewell letter _was forged and planted_ discards the theory of suicide right away" Akiyama refuted Aishi's statement

"Uh-huh, very nice detective, but what do I have to do in all of this?"

"You tell me!" Akiyama then drew his phone, looked for the results of Osana's autopsy, and then laid it on the coffee table so Ayano could see it "Whose sweat and fingerprints were on Osana's thighs huh? Yours and no-one else's"

Aishi then remained silent, she was caught. She knew this was the end of it.

"That's what I like to hear. I think your sentence just went up a few years, maybe fifteen at least? Oh, maybe you're getting life because you blatantly lied to us on our first encounter. How does that soun-"

" _ **ENOUGH!"**_ Toru mocked for a few seconds before being cut short by… No-one else than Captain Kobawa from the homicide squad

"Captain? What are you doing here?" Ichiro asked as he went out of the basement

"You idiots tell me! You are in private property without a search order, and with a minor handcuffed!"

"Sir, you don't understand. This girl resisted arrest and has very deep connections to the murder of Osana Najimi, and we have the evidence to believe she _is_ the murderer" Toru explained

"What a load of lies! I never resisted arrest! I just opened the door and these two tasered, handcuffed me, and started claiming I am a murderer! I am going to sue the department!" Ayano exclaimed angrily, trying to get on the Captain's good side

"Is that so?"

"Don't listen to her captain! She's lying!" Ichiro exclaimed to defend

"Oh shut up! This case is officially closed and this girl is being released immediately! I want the report on my desk before midnight! You heard me monkeys?!" Cap screamed in anger

"But Cap!" Toru bemoaned before being cut short

"But Cap but Cap! Shut up! Akiyama! Release this girl at once or I'll get you suspended and demoted! And not back to burglary! You'll be assigned to fucking parking duty! Got it?!"

"Sir yes, sir…" Akiyama said grinding his teeth in resignation as he took his phone from the coffee table and opened Aishi's cuffs, only for him to retire quickly in anger

"Permission for retiring Captain?" Ichiro asked

"If he went out without saying a word then you can as well idiot! Go away! I have to reach a settlement with this young lady here"

Akiyama was angry, his first arrest on the homicide desk was taken away by the lies of a girl and a captain too worried about the ruckus she would make, he made his way to the car, took a seat and started up the engine, Ichiro eventually caught up to him.

"Toru…"

"What?!"

"I know you're angry… But you better make sure you put this on the report" Ichiro said as he drew his phone and opened the gallery app

"Put what?!" Toru snapped back at his partner

"This you dingus"

The picture on display in Ichiro's phone was nothing else than the schematics for killing Osana, all of it neatly organized on a corkboard. From the time or the day where she would be at the roof staring into the horizon, to other possibilities and ways that are more gruesome like… Sticking her head on a running air conditioning unit.

"Holy shit…"

"Put it on the report, but keep it quiet will you?"

"Why?! This could put Ayano behind bars!" Toru complained

"She's an _Aishi_ Toru, nobody's gonna believe us unless she does it more than once and the amount of evidence is overwhelming" Ichiro reasoned

"So more people have to die so Ayano can go down?!"

"Sadly… Yes… Also, I thought you might find this interesting" Suzuki said as he drew two audio cassettes from his jacket

"What is this?"

"Nothing else than the confession your father yearned for since 1989"

Toru could not believe what his partner was saying at that moment as he warily took both tapes and analyzed them.

"The oldest tape contains the confession, the other one explains the whereabouts of Ryoba right now. I'd recommend you to first listen to them and then discreetly take these tapes to the Supreme Court in Tokyo, I have a couple of friends who can fill out the paperwork and try to open the case again" Suzuki elaborated as he pointed at each one of the tapes

"Ichiro… I can't believe this…" Akiyama muttered in awe

"Kid, me neither, but I'll tell you something: If we can't bring this Aishi down. Might as well aim for the other one"

Akiyama simply smiled at the comment before setting the car in motion once again.

* * *

 **La nota: First case unsuccessfully closed, plenty of more to come. Stay tuned!**


	5. Intermezzo One

_**Intermezzo no. 1**_

* * *

 _ **Yamashita Residence, Tokyo, 16**_ _ **th**_ _ **of February of 2019; 4:37 P.M**_

The judge Ryo Yamashita was perhaps very surprised at the details and depth of the story this informant was telling him, but he wasn't fully convinced about it.

"Very interesting story, sir or ma'am. But the case report contradicts your take entirely. The official report reaffirms the theory of suicide and attributes no further investigation to a lack of evidence, so I don't know what are you talking about" Judge Yamashita told to the informant over the phone

"You see, that's where more tales of corruption come in. The official report is nothing else than a forged letter written by the police chief, it isn't even signed by the detectives involved in the case, I, however, have a copy of the _real_ case report, and I'll be sending it over to your non-SaikouMail address in right about… Now" A heavily distorted voice that couldn't be identified as either male or female responded, this anonymous informant sure took all necessary precautions

Less than a second later, the browser open on the judge's computer came up with a notification from AtoMail, a popular email provider for those who seek to stray away from SaikouMail, with the email the informant claimed to have sent.

"Alright, let me see…" He said as he opened the email client to see its contents, which contained no further text, and simply an attached .pdf document, he simply opened it on the built-in PDF reader of the browser.

* * *

 _Case no. 1569, Buraza Police Homicide Investigations Division_

 _Date: XX-09-2016_

 _Victim: Najimi, Osana (17-years-old at the time of death)._

 _Place of death: Akademi High School, Residential Buraza, fourteenth block._

 _Cause: Death by fall, severed jugular, snapped neck, and severe head trauma. Murder attempted to be passed as suicide._

 _Detectives assigned to case: Suzuki, Ichiro (Badge no. 654). Akiyama, Toru (Badge no. 1123)._

 _Detailed report with attached pictures below, assembled by Det. Akiyama:_

 _As soon as the case was assigned to us, the Det. Suzuki and I rushed to the crime scene as soon as we could to begin the investigation. When we arrived, the coroner Yamamoto Hideo laid the cause of death upon us and drew conclusions, one of which was the possibility of a murder being disguised as a suicide. At the moment we didn't have enough evidence to sustain the theory, so we moved onto the witnesses and possible suspects in this case, a trio of schoolgirls in the rooftop:_

 _Haruka, Kokona (17, behind the southwest AC unit, made the emergency call)_

 _Miyu, Saki (17, was speaking to Haruka behind the AC unit)_

 _Aishi, Ayano (17, sitting on a nearby bench, primary witness)_

 _When we take their statements, most of them seem to be coincident: Najimi takes the jump, Aishi takes a peek over the guardrail. However, there was one thing missing from Aishi's statement: The fact Najimi screamed as she was falling. We originally found her pair of shoes and a farewell note at the scene (exhibit #1), the calligraphy of the note is, as noted, pretty bland and generic, and the contents imply depression due to heartbreak, however, we discovered that Najimi hadn't confessed to anyone, so the authenticity of the letter was in doubt, but we couldn't compare one of Najimi's notebooks against the letter at the moment due to pressure by the school staffs to leave the premises, so we handed Najimi's shoes, farewell note, and bag to technical services, and moved onto waiting for the results of the autopsy and the confirmation of evidence delivery. In the meantime, we responded to an urgent street call (see Patrol Division case file no. 3247), and in the aftermath of said call we were informed of a mishandling of possible evidence by technical services, leaving us with no reference material to compare the farewell letter since everything that was delivered to them went missing, which the coroner Yamamoto erroneously thought he had delivered to technical services but in fact he had left on his robe pockets (we are indeed thankful for his mistake)._

 _Eventually, a close acquaintance of the victim (Yamada, Taro. 18, Childhood friend) reaches us asking for current state of the case, we lay the situation down for him and ask if he can help out getting the case unstuck, he accepts the request and proposes meeting at his house, we comply with the request. At the Yamada Residence, Taro analyzes the letter, only to debunk the theory that it was written by Osana, saying that the calligraphy doesn't match hers, he passed us a photo note to corroborate the claim (exhibit #2) and we conclude it's a murder, and we set the spotlight upon Aishi, the primary witness. As we are leaving the Yamada Residence we receive a call from the coroner Yamamoto, who lays upon us the highlights of the autopsy (exhibit #3), being the most important a 50% match with Ryoba Aishi's DNA on foreign sweat tests, meaning it must come from her offspring, and two sets of foreign fingerprints belonging to Ayano Aishi on Najimi's thighs. We rush to the Aishi Residence after knowing this fact, willing to arrest Ayano._

 _Upon arrival at the Aishi Residence, we read Ayano her rights as an arrested individual, to which she answers with running away. The Det. Suzuki immobilized her via tasing and handcuffed her. As I tried to get a confession out of Ayano, to which responded by remaining silent. The Det. Suzuki took the liberty to search the house, where he found, specifically in Ayano's room, a corkboard filled with schematics to kill Najimi in the process of being disassembled (exhibit #4). At this point, we were deterred from investigating further by Captain Kobawa, who stepped into the house in the heat of the moment and closed the case for reasons I have yet to fathom._

 _We are still waiting for an answer from the local court for a capture order for Ayano Aishi, who remains free._

 _Signing out, Det. Toru Akiyama, badge 1123, Buraza Police Homicide Investigations Division._

* * *

The report was definitely authentic, it had the signatures of the detectives involved, the signature and seal of the Homicide squad Captain. Everything that was missing was the signature and seal of the police chief, which the other report had. The Judge couldn't believe it.

"This is… This is… This is insane, cover-up, obstruction of justice. I can give that police chief a long sentence with this…" He said as he went over the case report over and over again

"Oh-ho, and this isn't the last time he did that…"

"What? Are you implying there is more of this?"

"Of course there is, let me tell you another of the many cases he covered up…"

 _ **To be continued…**_

* * *

 **La nota: I'll have to change parts of the prologue, since from now on the story will be told from the perspective of an unknown (for now) informant to a Supreme Court Judge. These small intermezzos will serve as ways to connect the story, and to keep my creativity flowing.**


	6. Breaking Procedure to Work Undercover

_**Chapter Four: Breaking procedure to work undercover.**_

* * *

Judge, have you heard of the disappearance of Amai Odayaka? Probably you haven't, considering the case was buried as soon as the detectives who were working on it made some progress, coincidentally those detectives were Toru Akiyama and Ichiro Suzuki once again… It all began on a cloudy Tuesday of September in 2016...

* * *

 **Homicide Squad Briefing Room, Buraza Police Precinct, Downtown Buraza; Tuesday, September 27th of 2016. 9:12 A.M**

The homicide briefing room was as gloomy as always, populated by dead-serious and veteran detectives filling out paperwork and just a few of them working out cases. Despite the sizeable number of the squad, no more than five murders usually happen in Buraza Town per month. However, that September was pretty strange since the murder rate had gone unusually up, and it was very likely that it would hit fifteen murders for that month alone. This had the detectives working in there crazy, and some of them craving for action. But two of those detectives weren't very excited about the fact, but due to very different reasons.

Akiyama was pretty gloomy and disappointed because there was a killer on the loose, it remained free on the streets due to the fact that the capture order for Ayano Aishi was rejected by the court due to a lack of a convincing case report, which for some reason the great report he wrote had gone M.I.A somewhere in the file cabinets of the precinct. Suzuki was simply… Annoyed by the prospect of actual work, to say the least. The former was trying to figure out when and how the Najimi Murder report went missing, and Suzuki was just filling out his tax forms.

"I mean, how does a filed to the brim and specifically labeled folder full of important documents go missing just like that? It doesn't make sense!" Toru bemoaned

"Well, we have a pretty massive archive…" Ichiro mused without taking his sight away from the sheet he was filling out

"But we have archivists, accountants, and librarians to keep that shit tidy! And don't tell me the rank-and-file department is understaffed. They have as many people as the whole damn detective wing of the force!"

Suzuki slammed his fist on the table in annoyance, and then he faced Toru.

"You better shut the hell up about this before you have an aneurysm over it. I'm sure the report will surface in due time, but in the meantime: Calm. The Fuck. Down."

Akiyama simply sat back down in resignation.

"Alright alright. I'm just… Pent up about it I guess, it's just that I wrote a great report for my first murder case and now it's gone…" Toru then sighed "And how are your friends doing in the court to reopen the Aishi case?"

"If they manage to convince the Court, we might have a preliminary hearing in front of a judge in November, and if things go nice, this'll go in front of the justices in due time" Suzuki then leaned closer to Akiyama "We'll need a very strong prosecution team to get this to the justices Toru, it's a thirty-year-old case after all"

"I can sort that out, I remain in touch with some of my father's workmates after all, and I'm sure they can get me the best of the best in Japan to work on the prosecution bench… But we've got a problem" Toru said

"Which is?"

"I gave the tapes a listen as I backed them up, you said the last one told us where Ryoba is, right? That's the problem, she's not in the country. She's over in over in America, and in the mainland, way out of our jurisdiction and out of reach for my colleagues in the Honolulu PD, we'd have to ask INTERPOL for a red notice for her, delaying the hearing. Which is probable considering people usually get notified via mail or phone, It's allegedly a long trip, I doubt Ayano will tell her that she's got a letter from the Supreme Court, or that she's paying for the exorbitant roaming fees we get in America" Toru elaborated, making Suzuki shake his head

"Look, don't sweat the little details and think about the big picture. The hearing _will happen,_ and Ryoba _will show up,_ no matter the date. Right now, we have to look for anyone who can back the claims we're going to make. And I think I know who" Ichiro replied

"Whom?"

"Her husband, Takeru Aishi. From his speech patterns on the last tape, you can tell that he knows the whole story, but he's hesitant on telling that to anyone because he's afraid of reprisals coming from Ryoba. All we have to do is get him to spill the beans and ensure he's protected afterward"

"Isn't it a bit weird that he took Ryoba's maiden name when they married? Isn't it the opposite way normally?" Toru pointed out of the blue

"Look, there are a million things that are more important to worry about, and you thought about some name mumbo-jumbo?" Ichiro scolded

"Ichiro, there's a deeper meaning behind that, I can tell it"

"Whatever"

"Akiyama! Suzuki!" Captain Kobawa called out from the podium in the front of the room, and the aforementioned detectives switched their attention to him "Look pair of jerkwads, I have a case for you. A schoolgirl called "Amai Odayaka" who went missing about a week ago, last whereabouts: Akademi High in Residential. The search efforts are still ongoing, but y'all know the protocol, after a week we start a homicide investigation alongside the search efforts just in case. Go to Akademi, see what y'all can find, and since we're doing this alongside a search in case the person's alive, you guys have five days to make progress. Get going"

Akiyama quickly picked himself and his stuff up, preparing to leave whilst Suzuki remained in place, still filling out tax returns.

"What the fuck do you think you're doing Suzuki? I gave you a case, now go work on it!" Kobawa scolded

"I'm filling out my tax returns, gimme a sec…" Ichiro blandly said

"And you get paid with _tax money_ pint-sized prick! Earn your goddamn keep!"

Suzuki simply placed the forms on a folder and the pen on one of his jacket's pockets, stood up, and walked out. Obviously a bit annoyed. As he kept up with Akiyama through the halls, he started a conversation.

"Is it me or the Cap is more of an asshole than usual?" Ichiro said out loud

"Isn't he always like this? I've been here for a week and I've seen the same pricky attitude like he's got a stick up his ass all the time" Toru replied as he got to the stairwell

"Yeah, he's kinda like that, but nowadays he's more pent up and intense"

"I'd suppose things aren't well at all in paradise. After all, he's a divorced 64-year-old man whose income goes towards paying debts, bills, and child care fees"

"Nah, I don't think those things are tightening around his neck, I've seen him go through worse and he keeps his cool, still being a bit of a dick though" Suzuki added then thought of something "You know…? There's only one kind of thing that makes the Cap go haywire…"

"Which is?"

"Pressure from the Chief. The last time I saw him like this was when they murdered that starlet three years ago and the Chief wanted arrests by all means necessary, what was her name?"

"I can't remember, I was on the beat when that happened"

"Yoshiko Amane! That was her name! Either way, the Cap reassigned everyone to that case, even me, and we worked off our asses day and night until we got the goons that did it. Not only the eight-hour limit was lifted just for that occasion, but also we were under a shitton of pressure to solve that case, and the Cap was awful pissy at that time 'cause the Chief was breathing down his neck. Eventually, we closed the case, and I'm gonna tell you, he was _way more_ easy to deal with afterward" Ichiro elaborated

"So in short, something must be going up higher in the chain of command, am I right?"

"Damn straight kiddo… Either way, let's go. The trail to Odayaka is getting cold"

"I think you're a week late~" Toru sarcastically remarked

Suzuki playfully hit Akiyama in the shoulder and kept going, as they went through the narrow halls of the precinct, they brushed through the Burglary Department briefing room and Akiyama took notice of Aiko Ruto's presence through the window, he simply waved hello to her, to which she replied with a giggle and a wave of her own when she noticed him.

 _Is it me, or I miss Aiko way too much?_ Akiyama thought to himself.

That little doubt would linger around for a bit, for no particular reason honestly.

* * *

 **Akademi High School, Residential Buraza; 9:27 A.M**

In stark contrast to the day Osana died, Akademi was now under a gray and cloudy day that looked like it was going to rain in any second, yet the school looked like a beacon of light and happiness amidst all the gloominess of the ambient.

After a reasonably quiet drive, the pair of detectives arrived at Akademi once again, they got down from their vehicle once it was parked. And began to discuss the appropriate course of action.

"So, what are we going to do?" Toru asked his senior out of habit

"Well, first thing's first: We have to find out who Amai Odayaka is exactly. And what better person to ask than my dear friend Genka?" Ichiro answered in a chipper manner

"Don't you mean 'My dear mistress Genka'?"

"Fuck you, Akiyama, can't an upstanding married man have a female friend?"

"Oh, it isn't like having a friend is bad… It's having a _sex friend_ whilst being married at the same time" Toru replied with venom

"Get out of here before I hit you with a cleaver Akiyama" The offended man threatened

"My pleasure~!" He answered victorious as he playfully marched towards the school's entrance

"I swear to the Gods these youngsters are real pieces of work…" Suzuki muttered under his breath

* * *

 **Student Counselor's office, Akademi High; 9:30 A.M**

The detectives eventually arrived at the Student Counselor's office without an issue and they simply barged in without a care in the world. Ichiro decided to greet first.

"Hey-ho Genka! Glad to see you again!"

This apparently was enough to startle her, who was organizing a few objects on the office's shelves, the books and other random objects she was organizing all fell on the ground with a thud. She simply sighed in resignation.

"You know Ichiro, there is something called 'knocking doors'. It's a great way to avoid these kinds of disasters" She said sternly as she bent over to pick out what just fell

"Come on Genka! Live a little for once! Just give into the pleasures of life" He snapped back as he plopped down onto a couch

"You do remember I have a job that requires me to be stern and immovable, right?" She continued as she resumed organizing the shelves "Now, to what do I owe the pleasure of the visit?"

"Well Genka, as you can guess from the presence of my partner Toru. We're here for official Police business. The disappearance of Amai Odayaka to be exact"

"I see… But wait, aren't you two from the Homicide Brigade?"

"Yes, ma'am. But I can rest assure you that we are just trying to discard the possibility that Ms. Odayaka has deceased" Toru chimed in

"Alright, but what do you exactly need?"

"Just information about Ms. Odayaka, not much else"

"Okay…" She said as she gave up on putting a book in the highest parts of the bookshelf "Detective Akiyama, mind putting this book in place? I can look for the information you need faster that way"

Akiyama nodded and complied with the request, the Counselor handed the book to Toru and got to work on what the detectives needed whilst he neatly placed the book in place, after doing that, Toru started looking over Genka's shoulder to see the progress, only to be greeted with the information he needed already.

"Well Ms. Kunahito, aren't you a fast worker?" Akiyama complimented

She simply giggled at the compliment.

"I was already looking at the file a few hours back. Odayaka-san is a pretty popular student around here and I had to remember why" She replied

 _Alright, what do we have here…? Second-year student, President of the Cooking Club, pretty popular among the student body because of her cooking skills, slightly above average scores, no citations, and not much else. Quite the normal student, so why would she disappear?_ Akiyama thought to himself

Genka was already a bit uncomfortable with the detective looking over her shoulder for so long, and Ichiro took notice of this.

"Hey! Toru! The only person who is allowed to make advances on that woman is me, you get it?"

Toru just backed off a bit to take his trusty notebook out and scribble a couple of important notes.

"Ichiro! How can you say such things in public?!" Genka replied, flustered

"Easy, saying them. You know, opening my mouth? Speaking?" Suzuki said nonchalantly

"Very funny Ichiro, someone should give you a prize"

Akiyama placed his notebook back on his jacket and interjected.

"Look Ms. Kunahito, as much as I'd like to leave you two having these antics Ichiro and I have some work to make" Toru then switched his gaze at the aforementioned man "Suzuki, we have to go"

"Alrighty, let's go," The older man said as he got up from the couch

The duo of detectives then walked to the door, but as Suzuki opened the door Akiyama once again directed a couple of words at Kunahito.

"Ma'am, thanks a bunch for the help once again, but I'd like to ask you one more favor"

"What is it, detective?"

"Do not, under any circumstances, let the Headmaster know of our presence on school grounds, and if he does find out we're here, just play it off and tell him we're new substitute teachers getting acquainted with the school" Akiyama elaborated

Both Ichiro and Genka stared in disbelief at Toru's request.

"Wait, why would I do such a thing?" She questioned

"I have a feeling that _someone_ has been hampering both the search and investigation efforts, it happened in Osana Najimi's murder with the bulk of evidence going missing at the hands of technical services. And I'm pretty sure it can happen again if anyone other than us and Captain Kobawa knows that a homicide investigation is taking place for Amai Odayaka"

Genka thought about it for a couple of seconds before looking at Ichiro, who just shrugged in response, she then sighed.

"Look, detective, I'll see what I can do. The thing is that to pass off both of you as teachers I'll have to assign you ID cards and places in class schedules, and you will have to comply with the latter or it will be seen as suspicious, are both of you sure that doing this kind of undercover thing wouldn't be off-limits?" She explained and then asked

"Look Genka, just do what you can do. If you find yourself cornered just give me a call and we'll either retreat or see on what can we help you out" Ichiro interjected

Kunahito simply nodded at Suzuki's words and got back to work on her laptop, the detectives then cued their leave, and as soon as the door was closed the older detective directed some words at his junior.

"Akiyama, I _really_ hope you know in what kind of shit we're getting into. This is an unauthorized undercover operation and if we get caught we'll have the shit hitting the fan in no time"

"I know, but sometimes you have to shake the tree to see what it falls down. Let's stick around Akademi three days as teachers, each one working independently, shaking students and seeing what's what" Toru replied

"Man, but there are at least six students or so who know us and have seen us working the Najimi murder, you think they've forgotten about us in less than two weeks?" He countered

"The only one who could remember us vividly would be Taro Yamada since we were particularly close to him, but we can track him down and tell him to keep his mouth shut about us, I am pretty sure he would love to cooperate"

"What about Aishi then, Toru?" Suzuki asked with desperation

Akiyama hesitated for a moment before giving an answer.

"I guess we'll have to avoid her for the time being, we could ask Genka to try and keep us as far from her homeroom as possible, that could keep us in the clear"

"Fucking shit Akiyama, why'd you come up with this idea?"

"You'd rather have another Najimi or Aizama murder? You know someone has been messing with our cases and you know it! I've seen that every time we call our progress in, we get a massive set back! Two similar opportunities aren't possibly a coincidence! Can't you see we're being fucked with?" He lashed out as quietly as he could at Suzuki

"I know… I know… I'm just afraid that this makes it to our supervisors"

"As long as we keep our heads down, and we don't make too much noise we should do fine"

"Let's just hope so"

With those words, the detectives hid their badges as well as they could before splitting up to find out anything they could about Amai Odayaka.

* * *

 **?**

A lone, redheaded, female figure sat down in front of a set of computer monitors ready to check the status of her little 'business' as she called it. This figure was no-one else than the infamous Info-chan, the notorious information broker and panty shot dealer of Akademi High. Her latest 'business venture' proved a bit messy, but profitable. A student went to the afterlife and another missing, which meant that the local news would be craving for information about the events she would be willing to leak for them in exchange for money, all whilst Yandere-chan would give her a steady supply of panty shots in exchange for doing favors and meddling in police investigations so she could avoid jail time. Everything was going nice and dandy…

As she began to tweak the latest batch of panty shots Yan-chan had sent her, a notification popped on another monitor.

 _An addition to the employee database? Who might that be?_ Info thought to herself

The Information broker switched her focus to the monitor displaying Akademi's employee database, and she began to analyze the new additions.

"Umm… Suzuki Ichiro, a substitute Biology teacher. And Akiyama Toru, substitute P.E teacher… Genka added them to the database, yet Kocho hasn't added them to the payroll, something smells fishy here"

She then opened a new browser tab and logged into the Buraza Police database with the police chief's account to search for any criminal records, Genka is pretty well-known for putting troublemakers on the school, take the delinquents for example.

A quick search of both names on the database and well, Info is getting pretty curious already. These aren't troublemakers, they're actually detectives from the homicide brigade, and most importantly, they were the ones assigned to the 'suicide' of Osana Najimi a week ago. They are most definitely investigating the 'disappearance' of Amai Odayaka, the President of the Cooking Club. These two are on Yandere-chan's ass without a doubt. She had to warn her.

She quickly pulled her phone from the charging dock, unlocked it, looked for the last conversation she had with Yan-chan, and sent her a text.

* * *

 **Info-chan:** Watch out for the Biology and P.E teachers, the substitutes are undercover cops **.**

 **Yandere-chan:** Got it **.**

 **Info-chan:** Are you going continue your plot against you-know-who?

 **Yandere-chan:** She got too close to _my senpai._ She must vanish.

 **Info-chan:** Try not to make much of a fuss genius, if those cops catch you with the hands on the dough you're done for.

 **Yandere-chan:** Just run your mouth and I will run my business, sister.

* * *

 _I just hope this makes it through that thick head of hers._ Info thought to herself as she facepalmed and resumed her business

Yandere-chan is simply a pawn, although a very volatile and noisy one, and if Info can't control her, this little 'venture' will go down under real soon.

* * *

 **La Nota:** **With this short chapter, we begin act two! Appropriately named "Connecting the dots".**


	7. Undercover Findings

_**Chapter Five: Undercover Findings**_

* * *

 **Akademi High School; Tuesday, September 27** **th** **of 2016. 2:36 P.M**

After having struck a deal with Kunahito and having attended their first classes, our duo of detectives now posing as substitute teachers were walking along the winded halls of Akademi High thinking over where they were going to look first as they were getting to a place so they could eat their lunch.

"So, Suzuki. Any ideas?" Toru genuinely questioned

"Truth to be told Akiyama, I've never been in a situation such as this. Working undercover has never been my specialty" The older detective answered, also at a loss

"Well, I suppose that first thing's first. Our covers, what teacher are you substituting? Sorry if I didn't ask before"

"Biology. Genka handed me a few books to work with, and my next class should be in about…" Ichiro rolled his suit jacket's sleeves slightly and glanced at his wristwatch "Thirty minutes. I'll have to ask the brats on classroom 1-2 what subject were they jotting down about last class"

"I am standing in for the Physical Education teacher, Kyoshi Taiso. A former Olympic athlete from what I got from central, Kunahito told me I am basically able to do as I please with the students as long as I get them sweaty by the end of the period, I also got to stand by the gates every morning" Toru informed, and Ichiro suddenly darted his head in Akiyama's direction

"What?"

"You are going to be standing by the _**damn gates,**_ Akiyama. You're going to be right up in everybody's face, and it'll be only a matter of time before somebody clocks you" Ichiro said to his junior, with the biggest concerned face the 52-year-old man could make

"Don't worry. I've got a plan, all I have to do? Is get a haircut and a clean shave" Akiyama responded calmly

The older detective remained silent as he stared at Akiyama for a solid five seconds.

"… That could work. The short messy hair and goatee are staples of your image"

"Well, thank you"

At this point, both detectives were at the outer tables with vending machines, nearby the gardening club's greenhouse, getting drinks that could go well together with the takeout they got a few minutes ago.

"So, what did you find?" Suzuki asked Akiyama as he got himself some tapioca tea

"Not much. These kids do chatter a bit during my class, but Odayaka faded out as a theme of conversation a long time ago. The only thing I got when I named her on the list was the usual" Toru then shifted to his best imitation of a high schooler as he helped himself a can of black cola "'Is she alive?', 'Is she coming back?', 'I miss her octodogs' and so on"

"This seems like a cold case, unless…" Ichiro muttered before sitting down "Unless we do some classic detective work. Turn every stone we see"

"Sounds like a plan, we should start looking in the Cooking Clubroom. That's the last place where someone ever saw her"

"How'd you know that?"

"Got a little something off the students when asking whatever happened to her. That's a little lead" Akiyama explained as he opened his can of cola and sat down "All we have to do? Is scope the place out"

With that, both detectives started focusing on their food, as they were starving since late in the morning.

* * *

 **2:42 P.M**

Some time had passed, and our duo of detectives had finished their food a while ago. Akiyama was standing, looking out for troublemakers, whilst Suzuki was simply sitting down under the pretense of letting his recently ingested food do its digestion.

But all things, good and bad, have their end. And this break's was signaled by a commanding female voice.

"Hey! Who are you and what are you doing in Akademi grounds?"

Akiyama and Suzuki whipped their hands to the voice, which turned out to be one of the many teachers of the school. Toru turned to Ichiro.

"I'll handle her" He whispered to his partner before turning to the teacher "We are substitute teachers Suzuki, the man there, and Akiyama, yours truly. And you might be…?"

"Fuka Rino, mathematics teacher, homeroom teacher of class 2-1. And who are you guys supplanting?" The teacher responded, and then asked another question

"Suzuki is supplanting the biology teacher, and I'm covering the Physical Education one"

"Understood. I get it that you guys are substitutes, but both of you have duties, like everyone else"

"And those might be?" Suzuki asked has he dumped his waste on a nearby bin and stood up

"Suzuki, you are required in the faculty room, filling in the duties of the teacher you are substituting" She then turned her gaze to Akiyama "And you, Akiyama, right? You must be at the multiuse court, and take a peek into the swimming pool every now and then. Just to make sure nobody is running into or making trouble"

Akiyama and Suzuki exchanged confused and slightly pained faces before replying with a meek "We're sorry" with a bow, and running to their duties together.

"Shit, this just made our detective work a whole lot harder" Suzuki complained

"You tell me. But just keep your cool, we'll find an opening to do what needs to be done, in the meantime. Keep your cover in place, Ichiro" Akiyama reassured and advised

"Got it, partner, I'll see you on cleaning time"

"See you then"

With that, both detectives under the pretense of being substitute teachers, split up.

* * *

 **Akademi High's Faculty Room, 3:52 P.M**

"Fuck this shit, I should've brought my tax returns" Bemoaned Ichiro Suzuki, tired of correcting essays and exams, as he threw a ball of crumpled up paper into a trash bag, nailing the shot in the process "Not bad"

"Hey, substitute, at least set a good example for the alumni and stand up" Said one of the many teachers of Akademi, scorning Ichiro for his behavior

"Bah, who cares? This is the faculty room, and all the brats are busy tidying the classrooms up… Besides, as you said, I am a substitute, therefore, I am expendable to this school"

"Good Gods above, the Headmaster's really going cheap with the substitute personnel…" Muttered another teacher

"Well, he must be if he's blowing all the money coming from the monthly payments in bribes to the police department" Nonchalantly added Ichiro, who then corrected his sitting posture

"Excuse me? How can you insinuate that?" Questioned, as if offended by the comment, the first teacher

"Good Gods… Are you blind? Haven't you noticed that every time something bad something happens in this here school, nobody does a thing?"

"Well, the investigations are dropped due to lack of evidence…" Added the second teacher, before being cut off by Ichiro

"In the span of six to eight hours. Normal homicide investigations take weeks if not months to be closed, even when evidence is lacking. A detective can't solve a murder in a matter of hours unless it's a sloppy-as-all-heck case"

With this, all the teachers in the room began to be surprised by Ichiro's comebacks and explanations, but one of them, specifically the one that scolded Ichiro early in the day with Akiyama, wasn't convinced.

"And you know all of this… _How?_ "

Ichiro came up with the best possible lie he could make.

"I… worked, six years as a private detective in Nagoya. I'm pretty sure I have a good grasp of how police investigations work"

"Okay, I believe you. But how are you so sure about that thing about the bribes?" Asked a third teacher

"Easy, I remain in touch with some of my contacts all over Japan, some of which are affiliated with the Buraza Police Force, and they don't tell me pretty things about the link between the Police Chief, and Headmaster Shoyuna" He kept lying, whilst also adding traces of truth to his story. He looked at the hallways before continuing, this time in a lower voice tone and getting closer to the teachers "I am talking about kickbacks, massive ones. About Two million Yen a month, if not more. Tell me guys, have your benefits been cut, in some ways?"

All the teachers looked at themselves, then back to Ichiro, in disbelief. Eventually, they all responded one by one.

"Before 1999… When we assisted to school festivals to keep order without being asked for it, we received a hefty bonus. Not anymore" Meekly admitted the second teacher

"Hey, don't forget we don't get paid any overtime since 2002" Added the first teacher

"And our healthcare benefits were ducked. The insurance runs out fast with a simple flu" Piped up a fifth teacher

"I don't know if this is true, but I heard that Shoyuna pulled us out of the Union in 2004" A fourth teacher rumored

With all of this, the teacher who had scolded Akiyama and Suzuki, who had been a staunch believer of everything the school supposedly stood for, broke down.

"And… And… Paid Maternity leave only exists on paper… If I wanted to be paid during my pregnancy, I had to work, and even then, that son of a bitch reduced my pay-per-hour because I regularly had to make runs to the bathroom to deal with my pregnancy pains. Those were the worst eight months of my life, I nearly had an abortion"

Suzuki was shocked at all these revelations, he expected this kind of crunch from big corporations who employed salarymen and office ladies, but from a School? This was inhumane.

"Guys… Have you ever thought of… Striking?" Ichiro cautiously asked

"A strike? That would be the end of our careers! My nineteen years of service in Akademi would go to the trash!" Countered the second teacher

"Don't worry about the consequences… I think I can hook you all up with the union… But in exchange, I, and the P.E substitute, won't have to do any of this teacher duty trash, aside from the classes, again, and you will leave us to roam the school at our leisure without reporting us to our superiors" Offered Ichiro, risking it all

"You want it? You got it! We need the strike and the union help!" Said all the teachers in the room at the same time

Ichiro just bought himself an all-access pass to Akademi High as he hid in plain sight.

* * *

 **Akademi High's Auditorium/Multiuse court 3:56 P.M**

Toru Akiyama was now turning control of the Multiuse court to the substitute club leader for the sports club, Itachi Zametora.

"Zametora-san. Don't hesitate to call me if something goes wrong, also, I am very sorry for going overtime, it wasn't my intention"

"Don't worry so much about it, Akiyama-sensei! It happens to many substitutes on their first day" Itachi shrugged off Akiyama's apology, but the undercover detective insisted

"No, that does not excuse for a mistake such as this one. Akademi is supposed to be the best of the best, isn't that right, Zametora-san?"

"As I said before, don't. Worry. It happens to many, and whilst you're right about Akademi supposed to be the best, I think that in reality, we're very far off from that"

At that exact moment Akiyama's senior, Ichiro, arrived and signaled that they had to speak to each other, urgently.

"Ahhh… Zametora-san, you should go to your clubmates, quickly. I have business to attend with the other faculty members…" After Zametora waved goodbye, he rushed to the Detective Suzuki "What's going on?"

"Don't ask how, but we're now exempt from these stupid teacher duties, excepting the classes and you having to stand by the entrance, of course" Ichiro answered

"How?"

"I told you to _not_ ask, idiot!"

"Okay, okay. So what do we do now? Now that we are, relatively, free"

"Let's go to the cooking clubroom. The place was closed down after Odayaka disappeared. Meaning that no nosy brats will be bothering us since it's club time and the surviving members are told to scram before cleaning time" Suzuki replied

"And how do we enter? The room must be locked down"

"Give me the keys of the cruiser, there must be something on it we can use as a makeshift key"

Akiyama, trusting his senior, handed him the keys of their unmarked cruiser.

"I hope you know what you're doing, let's meet up at the clubroom door"

"Trust me, I am, I'll see you in the clubroom" Suzuki reassured

* * *

 **Akademi High's Cooking Clubroom, 4:07 P.M**

Without saying a word, Suzuki fired Akiyama's pistol, with a silencer equipped on it of course, at the clubroom's lock, breaking it, he then proceeded to open the door.

"What the fuck, Ichiro?!" Akiyama whisper-screamed at his partner

"You seriously thought we would waste our time picking the lock? Just enter, you wuss… Here" The senior detective deadpanned as he stepped into the club, also motioning Akiyama to enter and grab his pistol

Both detectives entered the clubroom, Akiyama closing the door behind him. Suzuki then remembered something and started rummaging through a bag he brought from the cruiser and took out two sets of identical things.

"Oh! I almost forgot, have this, and don't turn on the lights"

Akiyama grabbed the things amidst the darkness, one of which he identified as a flashlight, which he turned on, a pair of latex gloves, which he proceeded to wear, and another one that appeared to be an atomizer, why would he need an atomizer filled with some strange liquid?

"Hey, what's with the atomizer?"

"It's luminol, genius. We used to utilize it routinely on crime scenes, to uncover cleaned blood, and fingerprints. Now they're just limited to technical services and the coroner's office. Thankfully, Hideo handed me a few flasks of it" Suzuki responded

"And how does it uncover the blood?"

"Easy, spray where you see fit, then point with infrared light, and if there was ever blood in there? It should glow"

"And I suppose these flashlights have an infrared mode, right?" Akiyama kept questioning

"Yeppers, any more questions, kouhai?"

"I'm done"

"Good. Now, let's find some blood on this club, let's start with the workstations. I'll go over the ones on the right, you go for the ones on the left"

Both detectives then started to look, and as they did, Akiyama found something interesting.

"Hey. A butcher knife is missing in one of the workstations"

"Any idea… Of whom it might belong to…?" Ichiro calmly said as he sprayed luminol all over the counters of every workstation, and switched constantly to infrared mode, looking for blood

Akiyama then decided to look for a name plaque, and he indeed found one.

"Umm… 'Tsuburaya S.' Let's ask Kunahito to run it against the student database later"

"Suuuure… No significant amounts of blood on this side, what about your end, Akiyama?"

"No idea, haven't sprayed luminol on them, wait…"

Toru proceeded to do just that, and began to spray luminol all over the workstations and the adjacent floors, and switched his flashlight to infrared mode. On the workstation to his right, there was nothing of importance, but the one to his left…

"And we have a winner" Said Toru in a perfect deadpan as he kept his flashlight aimed at the top of the workstation

"You found blood?" Asked Ichiro as he ran and then aimed his own flashlight to the discovery, which was a few small bright spots on the kitchen tops "Akiyama, I found the same kind of stains on the other tops. It's normal for a club of this nature"

"You mean _this_ is normal?"

Akiyama then pointed his flashlight lower… and the drawers of the counter and the whole floor was illuminated with neon splatters.

"No, I didn't mean that… This station belongs to whom…?"

Akiyama then pointed his flashlight to the also shining name plaque, and it read…

"'Odayaka A.'… Should've known… Picture the scene, the missing butcher knife, and let's scram. We need to go back to central and report so the search efforts cease and the family is informed" Said Ichiro in a deadpan

* * *

 **La nota: Another chapter on the works, hope y'all like this one on the meantime.**


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